On this day in 1947, U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to break the sound barrier in his experimental X-1 rocket plane.
Nearly 70 years later, Virgin Galactic is pursuing commercial space exploration, and the company’s V.P. of program development has been tapped as a featured speaker at the upcoming OC Pathways Showcase. Check out that story and more in this week’s roundup of education news.
- Students across Orange County walked or biked to school in honor of Walk to School Day, which promotes health, pedestrian safety and family time on the first Wednesday in October.
- Educators and industry leaders are invited to check out dozens of student-led STEM projects at next month’s OC Pathways Showcase. The event, featuring Virgin Galactic Vice President of Program Development Tim Buzza, will demonstrate how OC Pathways and its community partners are guiding students toward high-skill, high-wage and high-demand careers.
As part of a program designed to connect different generations, elementary students from the Fullerton School District are producing digital biographies to document the lives of residents at a local retirement community.
- The Gift of History program, a multi-agency effort to engage third-graders in local histories, has won the prestigious Golden Bell Award by the California School Boards Association.
- The latest edition of “OCDE in 30 Seconds” focuses on OCDE’s Community Home Education Program, which offers free resources to parents who choose to educate their children at home.
- Finally, EdSource reports that the U.S. Department of Education has denied California’s request to abandon outdated science standards tests in favor of a pilot exam based on the new Next Generation Science Standards.