April 2020
We hope that you are safe, well and finding ways to thrive in aerospace/STEM education while in remote and virtual learning environments. Celebrate your successes, and please share them with us on our social media platforms tagging @CAPaerospace (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).

CAP's Aerospace Education team will continue to provide information and tools to help you keep your cadets and students engaged in aviation/space/cyber lessons and activities. A new CAP/AE webpage -- launched last month to share Aerospace/STEM Resources for Home Education -- is updated regularly as new sites are located.

Since last month, we also have added a video lesson page (click here or the icon above) . In addition to the national team-produced videos, we invite submissions from you. Send those and any other resource contributions to ae@capnhq.gov .

We thank those of you who already have shared links, videos and other resources.

CAP asks all of its members to stay safe and continue to take proactive steps in reducing the risk of contacting and spreading the virus.

For organization-wide communications, visit CAP's COVID-19 Information Center, a new webpage for c entralized location of essential information about COVID-19-related issues specific to Civil Air Patrol. In addition, please read Civil Air Patrol's SPECIAL BULLETINS (available on Thursdays) on COVID-19 as a source of the most up-to-date information and direction on CAP's guidance . These bulletins are archived on that information center page.

Be well, and be safe.

THIS MONTH : Member stories - Program updates
Curriculum - Important things to know
PROGRAM UPDATES
CAP's K-6 Aerospace Connections
in Education (ACE) Program
ACE End of Year Completion: ACE teachers, even though you may not have been able to complete all the ACE lessons intended this year due to school closings, don’t forget to fill out your 2019-2020 ACE Completion Form. You can find the report at the link below, left.  Fillable student and teacher certificates for 2019-2020  ACE  Program can be found at the link below, right.
ACE Annual Awards:  The deadline has been extended to nominate members for outstanding achievement in the ACE Program. May 8 is the new deadline. During this time of change, we understand if your access to photos to accompany the submissions is limited. ACE annual awards honor achievements in the following categories: ACE Student of the Year, ACE Teacher of the Year and ACE School of the Year. The ACE Program is not possible without the hard work and enthusiasm of its teachers and students. Be sure to get those nominations in to celebrate the stars of the program. For nomination forms and additional instructions, please click the link below and look in Related Links on the right menu bar.
Filling out a STEM Kit application? Here's a tip
STEM Kits: During this time of remote working, please be sure to include your home address and not a school or business address on your STEM Kit application. For other information on the STEM Kit application process, visit the link below.
AEO STORY
AEO produces online lessons for his cadets
and makes them available for other AEOs
Meet 1st Lt. Bob Roberts, the AEO for Greenville Composite Squadron in South Carolina (MAR-SC-014). Earlier in his CAP career, he served as an AEO for a composite squadron in the New York Wing. Roberts, also a general aviation pilot and volunteer firefighter, is inspired by leading cadets in exploring STEM fields through hands-on education. His online lesson collection on YouTube is especially useful during this time of physical distancing and remote learning due to COVID-19 restrictions.
" There is always a way for us to work together and enforce changes to help -- even if it's something small. Collectively, it all adds up, and we make a big difference together. "
-- 1st Lt Bob Roberts, AEO in Greenville, South Carolina
AEM STORY
Maine educator, retired from engineering career,
now reaches thousands in K-12 youth program
Meet Sharon Eggleston of the Maine Space Grant Consortium. Formally or informally, she has been an educator for most of her life whether as a project engineer for Lockheed Martin, serving as an adjunct instructor at a university or coordinating major STEM education events for thousands of K-12 students in her state. Most recently, she helped K-12 students ask questions of International Space Station astronauts from their home state of Maine .
CURRICULUM
End Effector
This lesson is the latest in a new AE team-produced video series of Civil Air Patrol lessons called Aerospace at Your Pace. "End Effector" is Lesson 10 in CAP's Introduction to Robotics book. In this lesson, cadets and students learn about the end effector of the International Space Station or Space Shuttle's robotic arms. They get the chance to make their own end effector and use it to pick up an object as well. The full lesson is linked below.
Each month, this space features important highlights or answers to frequently asked questions. Here are two things you need to know now as an AEM or AEO.
AEMs: Is it time to renew your membership?
All Aerospace Education Members (AEMs) are offered an annual FREE “in-kind renewal." The online renewal email is sent 60 days prior to the membership expiration date. A renewal banner appears at the top of the eServices sign-in page 90 days prior to expiring. (You can’t renew earlier than 90 days.) Find additional information at the link below.
AEOs: Reach out to AEMs whose memberships expire soon
AEOs, this is the perfect time to reach out to your AEMs whose memberships expire within 60 days or whose memberships have expired. For more guidance, see Recruiting and Retention of AEMs on the AEO Resources page link below.

Please note : CAP has several categories of membership, but each member can only be assigned one category of membership. Any adult uniformed member, who is an educator, may access all the resources available to an AEM.