Brand New Flight Academy Opens at Maryland High School

Beginning in May 2022, students at St. Mary’s Ryken High School (SMR) in Leonardtown, Maryland, will have the opportunity to get the feeling of what it’s like to be a pilot and understand how principles of math and science are used in flying. The newly christened SMR Flight Academy has an interactive classroom space with 24 flight simulators that will provide experiential learning through aviation and STEM. Students will face scenario-based real-world problems to solve in an immersive and fast-paced environment.

The Flight Academy is a natural complement to the school’s Scholars Program Engineering Pathway which uses nationally recognized Project Lead the Way’s curriculum focused on Aerospace Engineering. In addition, SMR also offers the Biomedical Science and Computer Science STEM pathways. While the Aerospace Engineering enrollees may reap the most benefit from the Flight Academy, students in other curricula can access the simulators and other assets in the space through various clubs, summer camps, middle school STEM activities, extracurricular activities, and special programs open to the public.