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Woodbury third grader recognized for aviation interest

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Woodbury Elementary Student Theo Lewis sits in an airplane cockpit at a Marshalltown Airport open house.

Woodbury Elementary School third grader Theo Lewis has a special interest in aviation.

“One day this fall Theo came to me and said, ‘I wanna learn about flying,'” Nicole Holman Lankelma, Theo’s Extended Learning Program (XLP) instructor said. “I said, ‘can you be a little more specific,’ and he said, ‘I want to know everything there is about flying.'”

Embarking on a semester-long research project, Theo learned about the basic scientific principles of flying, different types of aircrafts and the history behind famous pilots.

“Then one day Theo came to me and said, ‘I wanna fly,”‘ Holman Lankelma said. “So I said, ‘Okay, this now exceeds my knowledge of flying.'”

Concluding research by interviewing four pilots, Theo presented his findings to the Marshalltown Community School Board last Tuesday.

T-R PHOTO BY TREVOR BABCOCK — Woodbury Elementary Student Theo Lewis reads aloud his findings from a semester-long research project studying aviation to the Marshalltown Community School Board.

“He was able to not only learn about piloting as a career, but engineering and different ways he could achieve that dream,” Holman Lankelma said. “The opportunities Marshalltown gives its students just amazes me.”

Holman Lankelma said interviewing pilots was just one part of a larger project Theo worked hard on, and others may not realize how much work goes into XLP projects.

“The XLP program here in Marshalltown helps serve those students whose needs may not be met solely by the regular curriculum,” Holman Lankelma said. “So we provide extensions to the curriculum as well as a chance for students to dive deeper into their areas of interest like Theo with aviation.”

When teaching or instructing something in class, Theo is known to ask non-standard questions.

“He always finds one little element of it that you never really thought of, or he’ll make a connection to something we’re learning about and connect to something you don’t typically think of,” Holman Lankelma said. “He really floors me on his ability to understand, his impressive depth of knowledge on certain topics and his desire to always know more.”

Theo took his very first flight at 18 months old, and Theo’s mom Ashley Lewis remembers Theo’s reaction.

“He was just in awe of the entire experience,” Lewis said. “He was like the perfect little passenger.”

On the first flight Theo can remember, he says the plane’s takeoff is what boosted his interest in flying.

“The second we left the ground I could tell, because I felt like I was in the air on the plane, but my stomach was on the ground,” Theo said.

Theo is excited for warmer weather so he can take his first Young Eagles flight, a free flight program by the Experimental Aircraft Association providing youth ages 8 to 17 with their first ride in an airplane.

When asked what kind of planes he would like to fly, Theo said he would rather make his own.

“I would really like to build my own plane,” he said. “It’s a lot cheaper than buying one from the store.”

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Contact Trevor Babcock at 641-753-6611 or tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.

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