Students quietly worked in pairs, folding, cutting and gluing the colorful strips of tissue paper strewn across the half-dozen tables in the room.

What looked at first glance like an art class was actually Aerospace Engineering and Aviation Technology, part of a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics offering at DuVal High School in Prince Georges County.

Nearly 70 students, including 15 girls, are in the first class of the speciality program, which was created to encourage more students to embrace the study of science and technology and prepare them for careers in the high-demand fields.

Its a real good opportunity, said Jada Williams, 14, adding that she likes building things and has a strong interest in becoming a pilot. It will look good on the rsum.

NASA and the College Park Aviation Museum both located within minutes of the school are serving as partners and helping expose students to career options they otherwise might not consider.

Segun C. Eubanks, chairman of the Prince Georges County School Board, said the program at DuVal is much like other career academies that have opened across the county, part of an ongoing effort by the school system to expose students to careers and prepare them for college.

Rather than just explain to them why they need algebra skills in the ninth grade, this shows them, Eubanks said. They have the experience to delve into a career and get some hands-on work.

Eubanks, who is the director of teacher quality for the National Education Association, said he looks forward to an expansion of such academies into other fields, including education. The aerospace program is a good start for us, and were going to keep it going, he said.

The academies, which began in Prince Georges three years ago, are considered an essential component of the countys secondary school reform. The county has opened 36 career-focused academies, offering 12 career options to 3,400 students who participated in the specialty programs last year. Students are studying everything from information technology to health and bioscience.

But unlike peers in the career academies, the students in the aerospace and aviation program had to test into it, which makes it more similar to the school districts other science and technology programs. Plans call for the program to add 100 students each year, with current students serving as mentors to those joining the program.

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High school aerospace engineering program taking flight