Are you ready for NASA?

“May we bring our gliders home, teacher?”  

 At Northbrooks Secondary School, this is a common request by our Secondary 1 students after they have completed making gliders during their Tier 1 Aerospace Applied Learning Programme (ALP). The students can use these gliders for competitions or bring them home to show their parents after they completed test launching their gliders.   

 One of the students who benefitted from this programme is Brendan Lee Wei Liang, who graduated in 2013.  His interest in aviation was triggered by his experiences during Aerospace lessons and Youth Flying Club activities.  He has attained a Private Pilot License (PPL) and is now a Regular with RSAF.

“What I learnt in Northbrooks had definitely been instrumental in my journey to obtain my Private Pilot’s License. My experiences enabled me to persevere through my very demanding training. My passion for flying was heightened through the various Youth Flying Club activities and competitions that I participated in. The values I acquired from these learning experiences certainly helped to bring me closer to achieving my dream of becoming a fighter pilot.” - Brendan Lee  

 In this specially designed tiered programme, Brooksians explore ScieAnce and Mathematics in the context of aerospace through hands-on learning experiences. The programme aims to equip Brooksians with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to explore Aerospace STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields for further education and as a future career.  Skills are developed through critical thinking and reasoning non-routine problem solving, and knowledge of basic physics of flight.  

 In Tier 1, Secondary 1 students build and test launch gliders and this progress to designing drones in Secondary 2. In Tier 2:  Secondary 3 students attend level wide learning journey to ST Aerospace and selected students attend other programmes specially designed to cater to students’ needs and to give them first-hand knowledge in the aviation sector.   

 “The learning journey to ST Aerospace was a rare opportunity for Brooksians to interact with the Engineers and Technicians as they were working on an aircraft. Our students saw authentic working conditions and learned about the skills and knowledge required in maintaining and repairing an aircraft,” shared Mr. Venu (ALP Teacher).     

 Through a work- attachment learning journey, students get to make informed decisions for their potential career path in this field.  Northbrooks is supported by key partners such as CAAS, Airbus, ST Aerospace, ST Electronics, Republic Polytechnic and ITE Central.  A key highlight in 2016, in collaboration with students from France and the U.S., a group of Brooksian students’ and teachers’ went on a learning journey to Houston Space Centre, to learn about NASAasa work and the feasibility of living on Mars.  

 ”Visiting Houston’s Space Centre was a dream come true. It is one of the most breath-taking places I have ever been to.  If you are keen on space science and exploration, this is the place to go.  One key takeaway for me from my experience there is that in order to complete the challenge we were tasked with, everyone’s effort, knowledge and cooperation were required to complete the challenge efficiently.” - Kristian Lenardt (Graduated in 2018)