Under a new partnership, the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor is helping preservice teachers at Chaminade University gain a greater understanding of Hawaii’s military history so they can share this knowledge with students.
The future teachers are accessing the museum’s non-formal education resources that will eventually reinforce and expand formal classroom instruction in local schools. This includes materials from museum STEM camps, which integrate science and history for children as they explore aviation topics such as weather and atmosphere, flight planning and flight physiology.
The preservice teachers are also gathering information by visiting other Pearl Harbor historic sites, including the USS Arizona Memorial, Battleship Missouri Memorial and USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park.
The museum intends to use this partnership with Chaminade’s Division of Education as a springboard for outreach activities involving teachers statewide.
Working with the museum and other historic sites benefits teacher candidates in multiple ways, according to Chaminade Assistant Professor of Education Katrina Roseler, Ph.D.
“First and foremost, their final products for the Pacific Aviation Museum are a performance assessment demonstrating the integration of their three years of education coursework,” Dr. Roseler said.
The museum’s outreach to Chaminade is also beneficial, Dr. Roseler said, because it “models the types of relationships teachers should expect from their local educational resources.”
“This partnership demonstrates that teachers have resources available to them beyond their classroom and school,” Dr. Roseler said, “that can and should be leveraged to the benefit of K-12 students.”
Located on Ford Island, the nonprofit Pacific Aviation Museum is housed in two historic seaplane hangars that survived the attack on December 7, 1941, by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The museum features an extensive collection of warplanes and helicopters, including an iconic B-17E “Flying Fortress” heavy bomber from World War II.
Chaminade’s Division of Education offers bachelor’s degrees in early childhood, elementary and secondary education, and master’s degrees in teaching and education.
Cover Image courtesy of Pacific Aviation Museum