Curriculum

Welcome to the Curriculum section of the Aerospace Education portion of the Civil Air Patrol website. CAP AE offers more than 40 educational products that deliver hundreds of lesson plans to its senior members, cadets, and educator members. Aligned to national academic standards, the lessons cover pre K-12 and beyond and range from a 685-page high school/college textbook to booklets of hands-on activities for the very young learners. Subjects such as rocketry, robotics, flight, space, weather, mathematics, physical science, life science and unmanned aerial systems, are just a few of the amazing areas these lessons cover.

Explore these pages to learn all that our curriculum has to offer our cadets, students, and youth in organizations, libraries, and museums. For a quick curriculum page, go HERE.

Visit our product overview page now.

Featured Book: Uncle Wiggly Wings

In honor of the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, CAP is featuring the early learning book and teachers guide for Uncle Wiggly Wings, the Candy Bomber, at the end of WWII. Col Gail Halvorsen, aka Uncle Wiggly Wings, got his start in aviation with CAP and proudly displays the book at a 70th anniversary event.

Now Available: Women in Aviation

The newest addition to the Civil Air Patrol Aerospace Education curriculum library is "Women in Aviation." This book provides an introduction to and a historical account of the contributions women have made to the field of aviation and aerospace since the beginning of the 20th century. (See related video, below.) Project Manager Lt. Col. Randy Carlson (California Wing) focused on the stories of 12 diverse women, each representing a different chapter. Each chapter involves model-building relating to the aircraft that aviator flew. Also included with the hands-on activities are discussion questions and other activities designed to connect these aviators from the past with today's youth. For instance, cadets and students are asked to explore present-day gender barriers that have recently been broken or have not yet been broken. The book aligns with national academic standards and highlights a wide variety of careers. Currently, this book is available in the AE Downloads and Resources section, along with our other curriculum products in CAP's member portal, eServices, at www.capnhq.gov.

Lesson of the Month

The recent release of the film "First Man," based on the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong, has us looking at CAP Aerospace lessons about the moon. The movie is based on the book "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong," James R. Hansen's authorized biography of the first man to walk on the moon. This lesson, Observing the Moon, can be found in our Astronomy Activity Booklet (Pages 71-75). This is just one of many, many lessons about the moon offered among our variety of curriculum products.

In Observing the Moon, students and cadets will learn about the moon, including some of the landing sites of Armstrong and other Apollo astronauts.

Find that lesson here.

Enjoy your skywatching adventure!