Taking Flight with Aeyon: Elevating the FAA Airport Design Challenge by providing Blackboard Learn Support

Team Aeyon is proud to support the, FAA’s Annual Airport Design Challenge! The Federal Aviation Administration created this challenge to educate and inspire students (K-12) to better understand airports and their leading role in the National Airspace System. This year will be the FAA’s fourth run of the acclaimed Airport Design Challenge competition which utilizes Microsoft’s Minecraft to assist in developing a model airport with all the required airside elements. Students can apply to compete both individually or in small teams. Participants will receive instruction each week from FAA staff who specialize in specific areas of the airport.

Here are a couple more highlights about the program:

• Instructional content is provided through the Blackboard Learning Management System over a 6-week duration. This includes basic curriculum about airport elements and a weekly knowledge check quiz. Students then take that knowledge and study a local airport which they develop within their own gaming system.
• In 2021, the FAA ran the third iteration of the program, reaching nearly 2800 students across all 50 US States, 2 US Territories, and 16 foreign countries, 79 educators enrolled and incorporated the program into their classroom curriculum.
• At the conclusion of the program, students develop a 5-minute narrated video tour of their airport. Over 150 FAA volunteers serve as judges, ranking each airport design by technical accuracy, creativity, innovation, and presentation.
• The eligible entries are then divided into 4 categories (K-6th Grade Primary and Non-Primary and 7th -12th Grade Primary and Non-Primary) and are recognized in a live broadcast, worldwide awards ceremony which includes senior FAA leadership, NASA astronauts, and other celebrities.
• All students who finish the challenge are recognized with a personalized certificate and a commemorative program lanyard as a small gift for their efforts. The winning teams also receive first, second, and this place medals representing their success.
• In addition to the FAAs recognition, many of our students are recognized by their local airports, city councils, mayors, Governors, and congressional representatives.
• The program has been featured in newspapers and on news networks around the country for 2 years, and was most recently run on CBS Evening News.

If you know a student or school who may be interested in participating please pass along this information along with the link below to sign-up! This is an amazing opportunity to get students excited about Engineering, Aviation and Space Education (STEM AVSED). Enrollment opened April 1 and the deadline for entries is August 31.

If you would like to learn more and/or enroll please visit : https://www.faa.gov/airport-design-challenge.

Happy Designing!