The San Diego Air & Space Museum has provided STEM-focused youth educational programming in the local community for several decades, and education remains a top priority for the Museum. Now, the Museum is in the process of launching a new outreach vehicle allowing its education team to travel to parts of the community where the need for educational programming is highest.

The mobile classroom will serve students from preschool to high school in aviation and aerospace STEM related projects. Topics range from building a heat resistant space suit, to launching the highest rocket, to coding a rover to find an area to collect data. Our program is rooted in the Engineering Design Process which allows students to collaboratively work on solving problems and backing up their findings using data. Along the way the students learn soft skills such as overcoming failure, creative design solutions, brainstorming, and communicating effectively within a team. According to the United Nations Office for Space Affairs “Classes on space topics often spark students' curiosity and imagination and encourage youth of both genders to become increasingly involved in the sciences.”

Mission control will travel to schools, libraries, and community centers bringing engaging and hands on curriculum to students in areas that traditionally have a career choice in one of 10 jobs and bringing the students new and future thinking choices.

Storybook Engineers combines design thinking problem solving with early literacy skills for our youngest learners aged 2-5. The session will begin with a story time and then practice design thinking and literacy skills and end with a take home bag to continue to practice. The best way to increase a child’s love of learning is to place books in the home. This program will feature 5 key skills of literacy including oral language, love of reading, letter recognition, phonetic awareness, and design thinking. Topics range from animal and human migration, to things that fly, to 3 Little Pigs in Space.

The Museum’s current classroom at its location in Balboa Park accommodates 30 students as well as storage for educational materials and equipment. Unfortunately, the space does not provide a way to engage populations who are unable to visit the Museum due to distance or resources. The Mission Control mobile classroom will allow the Museum to inspire the next generation of learners to be innovative critical thinkers, problem solvers, and focused on careers in STEM related fields.

The Mission Control mobile classroom will allow the San Diego Air & Space Museum to continue its mission to provide underserved and underfunded San Diego area children access to youth development programs that prompt academic and future career-workforce readiness success in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.