PORTAGE, MI – Air Zoo president and CEO Troy Thrash said he had two things on his mind when he took control of the museum a little more than a year ago — education and community engagement.
 
Well-known for its more than 60 rare aircraft and spacecraft on display, the Air Zoo is now in the process of transitioning from a museum that simply preserves once-flying artifacts into a place capable of igniting a passion for math and science in its young visitors. 
 
“The average age of the aerospace engineer right now is 57,” Thrash said. “NASA, the coolest place to work on the planet, employs more people older than 70 than they do younger than 30. So, we hear in the news about this ‘brain drain’ and it’s affecting regions all around the country and it’s affecting us here. We have to do something about it.”
 
The key to addressing this “brain drain,” Thrash said, is to expose local youth to math and science at a young age, and this is where he sees the Air Zoo playing a large role in Southwest Michigan.
 
“We have to start training these kids, and exposing them to science and technology, but we have to do it a lot earlier than we have been,” he said. “We have the place, we have the assets, we have the inspiration but we’ve got to build content. We’ve got to build programs around that, to go back into the 5th grade and 6th grade where kids are starting to make those decisions about what math and science they want to study.”
 
In addition to featuring more than 25 education programs spanning kindergarten to 12th grade that can be held either at the Air Zoo or in classrooms across the area, Thrash said that the Air Zoo is also looking to host a number of new exhibits.
 
On May 31, the Air Zoo will be opening a 5,500 square-foot exhibit on tigers that Thrash said will introduce people to aviation and space in a very different way.
 
Air Zoo shifts focus toward education while continuing to preserve history