Cheyenne Benson

Dayton Regional STEM School

Internship 2014, Sophomore Year
National Aviation Hall of Fame Internship Report
From the 25th of May to the 6th of June, I worked as a volunteer at the National
Aviation Hall of Fame learning center, located at the United States Air Force
Museum. This was a very appropriate place for me to intern, seeing as I have an
active interest both in aviation and an Air Force career. In addition to volunteering
my time to provide visitors with enriching and educational experiences while
visiting the museum, I myself learned a great deal about aviation history (and even
current-day aviation). While I was interning, I tried to use my outside perspective to
think of ways in which more visitors could be drawn to the learning center, and
more actively engaged.
The Learning Center features many great exhibits geared towards a younger
audience, such as an interactive model aircraft carrier and several flight and space
simulators. These exhibits drew visitors in the most, being the most interactive and
the ones that produced a challenge, or a goal. I noticed that visitors were much more
motivated to engage in an exhibit when, instead of simply demonstrated a concept,
it demonstrated a concept and challenged a user.
For example, I would like to compare two different exhibits: the torquedemonstrating helicopter exhibit, and the Bernoullis Principle exhibit. With the
helicopter, visitors are asked to maneuver a lever to keep the helicopter from
spinning out of control in reaction to the torque produced by its spinning blades.
This provides a challenge or a goal for visitors, and they take time to understand the
concept because they want to achieve the small goal. In contrast, the Bernoullis
Principle exhibit demonstrated a concept without providing a challenge: press a
button, cause fast-moving air to flow between two balls, and watch the two balls
drift closer together. The exhibit demonstrates the principle excellently and is
interesting, but doesnt seem to capture visitors interests quite as well as the other
exhibits.
My suggestion to improve the Learning Center is to increase the number of
challenging or game-like exhibits, since they appear much more effective at
communicating with younger audiences. For example, one could make the
Bernoullis Principle exhibit more attention-grabbing by allowing a user to control
how fast the air flowing between the balls is, and challenging them to keep the balls
a certain distance from eachother by adjusting the airflow. This demonstrates the
correlation between higher airspeeds and lower pressure, as well as makes the
exhibit more attractive to visitors looking for fun.

Second, another one of the volunteers hit on this principle when suggesting a new
exhibit for the Learning Center. The National Air and Space Museum at the
Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., uses a computer program where visitors can select
from a number of aircraft fuselage, empennage, wing, and tail designs to create an
aircraft designed to perform a specified mission. This would allow visitors to learn
about concepts previously untouched-upon in the Learning Center (aircraft design)
as well as provide them with another challenge-game exhibit. If installed, such an
exhibit could provide information about how well a visitors plane did, why some of
their choices were correct or incorrect for design specifications, and a score to use
to compete against others. Aircraft design companies, such as Boeing, might show
an interest in sponsoring such a station. They could even advertise some of their
planes by inserting labels from which planes the parts to select come from. Such an
exhibit may also inspire the next generation of aircraft designers.
Another good idea might to be to have a kiosk on which visitors could play a game
with airplane and aviator history trivia. It introduces the actual information from
the Learning Center in an environment that stimulates competition and causes
visitors to have fun. Examples could be flashcard competitions or memory card
games. Small additions like these are inexpensive and could add an exciting new
element to the information in the Learning Center catered more towards the many
children already attracted by the other exhibits.
All this having been said, the Learning Center is already one of the most engaging,
interactive, and visitor-friendly sections in an already outstanding museum. The
existing exhibits already do a fantastic job of creating a fun learning atmosphere
(which is what caused me to realize that this method seemed the most effective).
The simulators especially foster a spirit of friendly competition (as well evidenced
by the constant efforts by volunteers to beat the high score of the day, an activity I
have participated in numerous times but never quite achieved. Yet). And besides
the exhibits, there is a wealth of information on the walls, plaques, and biography
kiosks about the people who made aviation history. During my internship I learned
droves, introduced to figures like Jackie Cochran, Patty Wagstaff, and Lawrence
Sperry Jr. I was able to quickly and competently deal with visitor questions. I greatly
enjoyed my experience and treasure what I learned, thanks both to the Learning
Center itself and the other wonderful volunteers!