Southwest Pilot Expands the Horizons of Sipley Fifth-Graders

For the second year, has adopted a pilot.

Chance Barber, a pilot with Southwest Airlines, has participated in the company’s “Adopt-a-Pilot” program twice. 

For several weeks this spring, Barber visited Sipley’s three fifth grade classes on his days off. He leads aviation-based lessons incorporating math, geography or creative writing.

Students might calculate how much fuel a plane uses in a year or research a city Southwest flies to and create a brochure with geographic information and other key facts.

Then, when Barber’s flying around the country, he sends a photo to the class of a body of water for them to identify or asks them questions about the cities he’s flying into.

“The biggest thing is to show kids that what you learn in school, there’s an application for it,” Barber said.

He said he helps students become interested in topics they don’t normally think about.

“They might not think science is very interesting, but we talk about how an airplane flies and how the first scientist figured out about lift,” Barber said. “They thought it was pretty cool and interesting.”

The “Adopt-a-Pilot” program is designed by Southwest for fifth-graders. The program runs nationally between February and June. About 1,200 classes around the country participate, according to Southwest’s website. 

Barber first participated in the program last year, modifying the curriculum for his daughter’s second grade class. He then decided to teach the fifth-grade curriculum at Sipley this year.

The program is offered at no cost to Sipley. Southwest ships materials for the program to schools, including a map designating the locations of airports Southwest flies to and small planes the students can put together.

This year, he offered to run the program for Sipley’s three fifth grade classes. 

"It incorporates a lot of things we cover already," said Colleen Egan, a fifth-grade teacher at Sipley. "We've used research skills, math problems. It's a way to get them engaged in real-life instances." 

The brochure project is meant to make students think outside of Woodridge. 

“A lot of the kids have never flown on an airplane,” Barber said. “We need for them to see and learn. For Little Rock, Ark., a student found out the first person who settled it was William Lewis.”

Barber comes from a family of pilots. His grandfather was in the third class of pilots at United Airlines. His father is a retired pilot for FedEx. Barber grew up in California, was a competitive surfer and first thought he would surf professionally. 

His father encouraged him to fly. He took a few lessons and realized he enjoyed it.