Bringing STEM education to life, students at Justice Myron E. Leavitt Middle School kept their eyes to the sky as an AW-139 helicopter circled overhead before landing on schoolgrounds. The helicopter is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST).
“A lot of people don’t know that careers in STEM can be as exciting as ours, so we like to show off our aircraft and have our pilots and scientists talk about their career paths,” said NEST aviation operations manager Mike Toland. “We’re very proud of what we do.”
Local NEST members — including pilots, engineers and nuclear scientists, based out of the Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS) Remote Sensing Laboratory at Nellis Air Force Base — guided students around the helicopter for an up-close look, led interactive demonstrations, and answered questions about their work in hopes of sparking a deeper curiosity and interest in STEM professions. They shared their own career paths and advice to students, focusing on the growing number of STEM opportunities in Southern Nevada.
“I want my job to be in aerospace in the future,” said eighth grader Jordyn Base.
Leavitt Middle School is one of the first middle schools in the state to earn the prestigious designation as a Governor’s STEM School, offering courses in 3-D printing, aerospace, computer science, women in engineering, and robotics.
“These guys are like pioneers to the kids,” said aerospace teacher Alan Sabol. “They’ve never met anyone who has done this before. To see STEM in real life is important because these are the kids who are going to be flying this bird one day.” This was NEST’s first school visit with its helicopter in Nevada.
The NNSS introduced its Uncrewed Aerial Systems team, which brought several drones as part of a hands-on demonstration and lesson in the rapidly expanding drone field.
“There are degrees in drone technology,” said Toland. “We have professional drone pilots on staff in our organization and that program is growing. We wanted to show these students the unique ways you can get into aviation.”
Within NEST, the Aerial Measuring System (AMS) is operated by the NNSS Remote Sensing Laboratories at Nellis and Joint Base Andrews. The AMS fleet — including the AW-139 helicopter — is on-call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and can be deployed rapidly to respond to nuclear or radiological incidents in the United States and overseas. Operational since 1958, AMS assists public safety and security missions across the country, securing some of the nation’s largest events including: the Super Bowl and other major sporting events, the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and celebrations including New Year’s Eve on the Las Vegas Strip.
