Warriors Over the Wasatch air show is back


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HILL AIR FORCE BASE — The Warriors Over the Wasatch air show is back this month — and educators hope it will help kids become excited about STEM fields.

It’s the same excitement Lt. Col. Kristopher Long says drew him to a career in the Air Force. “The United States Air Force wouldn’t exist without science, technology, engineering and mathematics. I mean it is at its core.”

Developing that core is a main focus at Hill Air Force Base — and it's why it's added the Aerospace Center for Education to Hill’s Aerospace Museum, which houses four classrooms with future plans for one more, according to Hill’s STEM program manager Alison Sturgeon.

“They’ve got a C-130 they will hook onto the outside of the building and that’s going to be made a fifth classroom and that’s going to be an operating model of an airplane.”

Long says STEM is vital for the Air Force. “It all starts with science, technology, engineering and math. It’s not man’s natural state to be in the air; it requires ingenuity and thought and planning, and that’s what STEM is all about.”

Sturgeon says it’s why Hill is trying to get students interested in STEM subjects at a young age. “We’re learning through stats and studies, we have to get the kids interested earlier, in order for them to want to take the harder classes when they get into junior high and high school.”

According to the Department of Education, only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career — and the U.S. is falling behind other nations, ranking 25th in math and 17th in science among other industrialized nations.

Sturgeon says Hill is also working hard to get girls hooked on STEM. “It’s a great career for women to have. I think a lot of girls don’t see it that way, but I don’t think they realize it’s this great profession, it’s highly respected.”

That’s why Hill Air Force Base is hoping the air show will create curiosity in the mind of the young people coming to see it. “What we try to do in the air show is obviously we’re inspiring people to join the military. We want them to be inspired about becoming scientists, engineers and mathematicians.”

The Warriors Over the Wasatch air show, which is free to the public, is June 25 and 26, with the gates opening at 8 a.m. Hill Air Force Base says its security will be tight and is asking people not to bring anything they wouldn’t bring to the airport. Visitors can use TSA restrictions as a guideline.

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Helpful links:

Performers

Prohibited items [pdf]

UTA service to the show

Map [pdf]

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Angie Reed

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