Hoogerheide, 19 September 2024 - FIRST Scandinavia, Boeing, and the Aircraft Maintenance & Training School (AM&TS) celebrated the official opening of the Netherlands' first permanent Newton Room in Noord-Brabant.
King’s Commissioner Ina Adema spoke at the opening and participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the three project partners.
“The Beethoven deal and Brainport are in the news a lot. However, the Brabant brains are not limited to the east of our province. What is being achieved here in West Brabant is also impressive and significant,” said King’s Commissioner Ina Adema.
Equipped with three flight simulators, the Newton Room offers practical learning experiences, introducing children to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
Measuring a total of 180 square meters, the classroom is equipped with three flight simulators and offers two learning modules.
Students completing the learning module "Up in the Air with Numbers" calculate a flight plan for a rescue mission they later execute in the simulators. The second module, "Robots and Circumference," presents a similar connection between theory and practice. Students first reflect on geometrical laws before programming a mobile robot to cover a specific distance. At a later stage, a third module on Sustainable Aviation Biofuels will be added.
Since 2003, more than 430,000 children have visited a Newton Room globally.
The newly established classroom builds on the previous successes of the Newton Concept in the Netherlands. In 2021, a total of 300 high school students completed the learning experience at a temporary Newton Room brought to Hoogerheide by FIRST Scandinavia, Boeing, and AM&TS. Three years earlier, in 2018, the first temporary Newton Room in the Netherlands was established at Delft University of Technology.
With the opening of the Hoogerheide Newton Room, Boeing and FIRST Scandinavia proudly mark the establishment of the 12th permanent Newton facility worldwide, encompassing 7 Newton Rooms and 5 Newton Flight Academies. Wim Blinkhof, Managing Director of The Aircraft Maintenance & Training School, King’s Commissioner Ina Adema, and Per-Arild Konradsen, CEO and founder of FIRST Scandinavia, ceremonially cut the ribbon, held by two students, to officially inaugurate the room.
“We are proud to welcome Noord-Brabant to our international network. Newton Noord-Brabant is the first permanent Newton Room in the Netherlands, and it is dedicated to hands-on learning in science and technology. Students will engage in exciting STEM activities, gaining practical skills and a deeper understanding of the world. We look forward to seeing how this room will strengthen practical learning and foster a love for science among young people,” commented Per-Arild Konradsen, CEO of FIRST Scandinavia and Newton Concept Owner.
Wim Blinkhof, Managing Director of The Aircraft Maintenance & Training School, explained the importance of attracting more students to STEM careers: “We believe that the playful way of teaching STEM principles contributes to a higher level of interest in technical subjects at school. Ultimately, all companies with a shortage of technical personnel will benefit from this, not only the aviation sector. Students who are enthusiastic about STEM at a young age are often those that become the best innovators and technicians in the future.”
