Flying Classroom pilot visits Andover elementary school
.JPG "Pilot Barrington Irving, front, and Fabio Alexander Vasquez, part of the flight crew, pose with students at Martin Elementary in Andover. The men recently launched the first part of a three-year journey around the world, during which they will share discoveries with students and teachers back home.")
Record-setting pilot Barrington Irving describes his newest airplane, Inspiration III, as a real-life Magic School Bus.
On Wednesday, before he travels across North America, Asia, Indonesia and Australia on the first leg of his three-year Flying Classroom journey, he stopped at Martin Elementary School in Andover.
“Over the next few years I’ll go to all seven continents, and you guys will get to follow that,” Irving said. “It’s gonna be cool.”
Irving, 30, was the youngest person and the first African-American to complete a solo flight around the world, a feat he accomplished in 2007. A former star football player from Miami, Fla., he said he turned down several athletic scholarship offers to pursue his dreams in aviation.
On Wednesday he told the Andover students about his past travels – including harrowing experiences flying over active volcanoes and landing on foggy runways – and explained the importance of science, technology, engineering and math. He described meeting geochemists who collect microbes from glaciers and shoe engineers working on technology to craft sneakers using 3D printers.
This year he plans to meet a chef with a bionic arm, track poisonous snakes to extract life-saving venom and explore a chandelier cave.
“I used to think athletes and celebrities were the coolest people in the world,” Irving said. “But you know who the coolest people really are?”
“You!” several students shouted.
Irving laughed. “No, not me – scientists,” he said.
Students in schools using the Flying Classroom curriculum, including Martin Elementary, will study subjects relevant to each expedition as they track Irving’s team. In addition to STEM topics, he said, they’ll learn about geography, history and the humanities.
“Scientists and engineers and technologists and mathematicians are doing some of the coolest things you’ve ever seen.”
Teachers and students can follow Irving through Nov. 18 on the website, www.flyingclassroom.com, or on Twitter at @CaptainIrving.
Reach Suzanne Perez Tobias at 316-268-6567 or stobias@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @suzannetobias.
This story was originally published September 24, 2014 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Flying Classroom pilot visits Andover elementary school."