Educating for TOMORROW

When thinking of aerospace, mobility, and space (AMS), most of us imagine engineers, technicians, pilots, flight crews and so on. AMS is about those careers, but it’s also about so much more.  It’s air traffic controllers, researchers, administrators, communicators, designers, medical and human resources personnel, entrepreneurs, and people from just about any field you can think of.

Canada, as a leader in AMS technology and services, needs thousands of leaders, thinkers, and skilled doers today and in the years to come. This presents Canadians, especially Canadian youth, with tremendous opportunities for rewarding, exciting careers in a sector that – by its very nature – is Aiming Higher.

A National Engagement and Learning Project

Aiming Higher is an initiative that brings museums, industry, government, academia and elementary and secondary schools together to inspire and engage the next generations of AMS workers and contributors. Aerospace Experiences 2024 is a pilot project for this initiative.

Aerospace Experience 2024 (AE2024)

AE 2024 is a pilot program designed to gauge the interest of students, school boards, aerospace companies and other organizations in building a recurring engagement platform to support AMS-STEAM learning and to raise awareness of the sector. If successful, organizers will look at expanding the program into regions across Canada with the support of national and local partners.

There are 3 components to AE 2024.

1. Problems of Practice (POP): Classroom challenges where students collaborate to help answer some big questions faced by the Canadian aerospace and space sector.

2. Aerospace Experiences (AE): from drones to Cubes in Space, students get hands-on experience working on aerospace and space activities.

3. Student Pathways 2024 Fair (SPF): Students and Air Cadets get to meet with representatives from the aerospace and space sector to discover what they do and how to get started in AMS.
AE2024 activities took place between April 8 and May 28, 2024, in-class at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) and onsite at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM) in Ottawa. In total, more than 2,000 grade 9-12 students and 400 Air Cadets participated.

For Teachers

Working with industry partners, museums, and educators, CARTAMS is building an extensive library of learning activities and resources for teachers. As development advances, the CARTAMS team will research and collaborate with partners to add progressively more sophisticated content and tools to engage students and teachers by grade level.

Please see below for a first installment:

Canadian Council for Aviation and Aerospace
Canada Aviation and Space Museum