High schoolers help Red Baron fly into Grade 1

Mount Baker High School has an aviation class. John Bacon is its teacher, and in the class, fortunately for Grace Muente, there are some of her former pupils. Fortunate, that is, because when she asked if Mr. Bacon's class could build a model airplane for her to use with her present first-grade class, he was a bit skeptical, but the former students were eager to work something out.

The wooden plan they constructed is 250 centimeters long with a 147-cm wingspan. It has a propeller that can be twisted, a rudder with a hinge, and a stick that moves sideways as well as back and forth.

Mr. Bacon claims the plane "wasn't designed, it just grew."

Since the high-school builders painted it bright red, it got, of course, the name "The Red Baron."

When the plane arrived in Grace Muente's classroom, the kids started climbing on it immediately. They sat on the fuselage and the tail section.

But then it began it's real work motivation.

It was a reward for good workers. It was used to teach sharing. It was the subject of many chart stories. It was the subject of a book. And when the first graders went to lunch, kindergarteners got to climb up, on, around, over, through, and into the airplane.

Finally, from a wide selection of stories written by the children. What can the airplane do? The airplane can turn to the right The airplane can turn to the left The rudder turns the airplane The pilot turns the rudder.