Fly Girls

Last Friday, we hosted an aviation booth at the USA Girl Scouts Overseas - Madrid STEM fair. Below, you will find photos of our booth and details to make your own. Early exposure is so valuable for children to learn to imagine what they can do. Also, please enjoy the video - thanks to Patricia, Alicia, Chen-hsi, Deisy, Natalie, Jade, and Kandy - made by current female pilots for future female pilots.

For the board, we simply cut and painted a cardboard box, covered the back of the box with maps (because we're nerds), and prepared our presentation as seen above. Special thanks to Silvia for the use of her airplane costume! Keep reading to see it lit up, below.

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Parts of the Airplane

Here is our entire board. In the middle, are the parts of the airplane. We explained these to the girls and how the control surfaces move the airplane. The labels are attached with velcro, which we removed after the explanation and had the girls attach the labels in the correct places. Parts labeled include: propeller, cockpit, fuselage, rudder, elevator, stabilizers, wings, flaps, ailerons, and landing gear.

Phonetic Alphabet

For the younger girls, especially the Daisies, we taught them the phonetic alphabet and when and why we use it. Then the girls practiced by writing their names using the phonetic alphabet with paper and crayons. Worksheets with copies of the alphabet were helpful to have at the table for reference.

Reciprocal Runway Headings 

We used velcro numbers to explain reciprocal runway headings, with a spinning compass, for reference, below. We also had a windsock. After learning that the airplane takes off and lands against the wind and how to read a windsock, the girls determined the preferred runway with different windsock situations. With four sets of four numbers, the board was interactive as we placed one runway heading on the board and had the girls determine the placement of the other three numbers.

Rotations were approximately 15 minutes. We made quick introductions, showed a 4-minute video, began with the parts of the aircraft, and then spent the remaining time on either the alphabet or runway headings, depending on the age of the group.

We hope to have an Aviation Day in the fall. Please contact us if you have any experience with this, would like to sponsor the event, or would like to volunteer. Thank you.

Related Links:

• USA Girl Scouts Overseas
• The Ninety-Nines, International Organization of Women Pilots
• Women in Aviation International
• ​Female Aviators Sticking Together
• Ladies in Flight Training
• One Plane Jane (t-shirt seen in photos)
• Base Turn (leggings seen in photos)

USAGSO - Madrid | Fly Girls from Christine Hannon on Vimeo.

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