Nearly 1,200 Culpeper County middle-school students thronged Culpeper Regional Airport’s hangars and tarmac this week to sample STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) equipment, disciplines and teachers.
Faculty and students with Germanna Community College’s Workforce Development Center and engineering department welcomed the students to the Culpeper Air Fest on Tuesday through Thursday.
Students watched World War II planes fly overhead, inspected a local pilot’s two vintage aircraft, learned how to make paper airplanes, and visited STEM stations demonstrating emergency medicine and an ambulance, 3-D printing, virtual welding, aerial drones, model airplanes, a helicopter, earth-moving equipment and aircraft restoration. Along the way, they learned math, robotics and computer coding.