Houston High students flying high this summer

HOUSTON -- One step into Houston Jr. Sr. High School teacher Kathy Sikora's summer classroom and you may be fooled into thinking you've accidentally walked into a college introduction to aviation course.

"Burble causes loss of lift," says one student, as others chime in with the definition of burble (when the air swirls on top of a planes wings).

Sikora asks the class at what degree a plane stalls, and the class automatically knows a plane won't keep climbing at 20 degrees.

"Unless there is a lot of thrust," pipes up another student.

It may sound like a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo that only pilots use, but these terms were sprouting out of the mouths of teen-agers entering into the ninth and 10th grades this fall.

"These are motivated kids," said Sikora. "Our attendance has been perfect."

Sikora and co-instructor Susan McCalley finished up Houston's Intensive Reading Summer School Thursday with a flight of the model airplane that was built by the six students who participated in the six-week program.

"This is awesome, I love doing this," said 15-year-old Paul Hosier, one of the students in the class. Hosier, Ilya Brown, 14, Jared Cleland, 14, Truitt Martin, 16, Michelle Winchester, 14, and Tim Edwards, 15, made up this summer's class. Sikora, who teaches the gifted program during the school year, has been leading the summer reading program for four years.

"All of the class is interested in a different method of learning," said Sikora. "They are kinetic learners, that's why they are so jazzed about this plane."

The students put the plane together last week, after spending the earlier part of the course learning about flight concepts, plane mechanics and a glossary of airplane terms. Sikora came to the class not knowing what subject she was going to focus on, but got a feel for what the students were interested in after the first week of class.

"I'm really flying by the seat of my pants," joked Sikora. "I went for a subject that would be the most challenging. I wanted to make it meaningful so that they really had to work at it."

Aside from reading the newspaper, finishing two novels and completing daily word puzzles and worksheets, the class learned the ins and out of the airplane they were readying themselves to build. The students said the class was definitely worth missing a little bit of summer break.

"[My favorite part was] working on the airplane and doing Internet research," said Cleland.

"Mine was the [classroom] breaks," joked Edwards, who then went on to say that building the airplane was his true favorite part of the class.

Martin, Hosier and Winchester took more than one reading course this summer, and Brown juggled the course while beginning the cross-country running season.

Winchester, the only female student in the class, joined the class a week late, after she saw how much fun her brother, Hosier, was having.

"I'd come again next year," Winchester said. "It gives me something to do over the summer."

While the students practiced maneuvering the plane on the ground Wednesday morning, they talked about how they wish the class wasn't ending so soon.

"They were bummed when they found out that summer school is over," Sikora said. "They thought it went all next week, too."

Martin summed up the program's success as Sikora reminded the students that the bus would be there in 20 minutes.

"I hope the bus breaks down," Martin said. "That way we can still fly the plane."