Building a Flight Path for What Comes Next

If you ask Jonathan Trevathan what Flight Path 2030 is building for Red Wing students, he’ll tell you it’s much bigger than just adding a computer science class to the course catalog.

“We’re creating a full pathway in data, computing, and AI for students,” Dr. Trevathan explained. “They can start with introductory courses and build from there, depending on their interests.”

As Red Wing Public Schools’ new AI and Computing Education (AICE) Specialist, Trevathan is helping build that pathway from the ground up. The goal is to give students opportunities to explore computer science early, grow their skills over time, and connect what they are learning to advanced courses, careers, internships, and other opportunities.

Some students may follow the pathway all the way through advanced computer science courses. Others may take an introductory class and head in an entirely different direction.

Trevathan sees value in both.

“We believe that having computer science skills is going to be beneficial everywhere,” he said. “Computing is no longer limited to careers people traditionally think of as ‘tech jobs.’”

Computing and data are increasingly part of fields that may not immediately sound like technology careers. Trevathan points to agriculture and the automotive industry as two examples. And in his own classroom, he wants students to see that the same skills can intersect with something as different as art.

“I think a lot of people associate computer science with a very go-and-sit-in-front-of-a-computer-all-day position,” Trevathan said. “But we’re seeing it become an important skill set, even in traditionally non-computer-science-oriented jobs.”

Part of Flight Path 2030 is giving students the chance to discover those connections for themselves.

Building Opportunities Earlier

Trevathan knows what it is like to discover computer science later. His own high school did not offer it when he was a student, so he began learning in college.

Now, he has the opportunity to help Red Wing students start earlier, and with a much broader foundation. That includes skills that may sound simple but matter in nearly every field: knowing how to use a computer well, communicate through email, work in spreadsheets, and understand basic data.

“Some of these basic tasks we realized are just not being taught anymore,” Trevathan said.

As access to computers has become so common, it can be easy to assume students simply pick up computer skills along the way. Trevathan wants to make sure Red Wing students have opportunities to learn them intentionally, along with the more advanced skills they may need later.

From there, students can begin exploring how computers actually work, how technology is created, and how they can use those tools themselves.

Trevathan’s new eighth-grade computer science course is one example. Students might expect to start class by using computers.

They won’t.

Instead, they’ll begin with the people, history, and culture behind computer science, building an understanding of the field before they start creating with it.

Then things get hands-on.

Students will build websites and program micro:bits, small computer boards that can become many things, like exercise trackers, light shows, and even devices that send messages to one another. At the end of the course, students will use what they have learned to create a project based on their own interests.

“If that project is something super technical, great,” Trevathan said. “If it’s an art project that incorporates an element of technology, equally great.”

That range is intentional. The goal isn’t for every student to follow the same path or pursue a technology-heavy career. It’s to give students useful skills, expose them to new possibilities, and help them discover where computing might connect with something they already care about.

Understanding AI Before Using It

Artificial intelligence will be part of that learning, but Trevathan knows that its growing presence in schools also raises questions for families.

He wants families to understand an important distinction: teaching students about AI does not mean simply giving them unrestricted access to AI tools.

“A lot of the computer science education we’re doing is about teaching students the principles, not, ‘Here’s an AI, go use it,’” he said.

Red Wing Public Schools has safeguards in place governing which AI tools students can access. At the same time, Trevathan believes students need to understand a technology they are increasingly likely to encounter in college, careers and everyday life.

“We intend to teach them what it is, where it works, where it fails,” he said. “We are going to show them those limits.”

For Trevathan, that understanding is part of preparing students to use new technology responsibly instead of simply knowing how to operate it.

“The truth of the matter is, AI is not going away,” he said. “If we want students to be successful for the rest of their lives after school here, they’re going to need to know those things. How to use it, but most importantly, how to use it safely and responsibly.”

And Trevathan’s work won’t stop with students. He will also coach and support teachers as they bring these skills into their classrooms and figure out where they fit naturally in the subjects they’re already teaching. For many educators, these technologies are new territory, too. 

“Part of Flight Path 2030 is recognizing that teachers also need education and support on these topics,” he said. “Modern generative AI didn’t exist when many of us went through school. I’m looking forward to working alongside my colleagues so we all feel prepared to help students understand and use these tools.”

A Place to Start

Trevathan is excited about Flight Path 2030 and what it can make possible for Red Wing students.

For some students, these first experiences may grow into advanced computer science courses and a technology-focused career. Others may carry computing and data skills into engineering, agriculture, art, health care, manufacturing, or another field entirely.

And some may simply leave school more confident using the technology and data they encounter every day.

What matters is that students have the opportunity to explore before they are expected to know what comes next.

Flight Path 2030 isn’t asking students to choose their future now. It’s giving them more experiences, more skills, and more possibilities to choose from later.

For Trevathan, that’s the exciting part: helping educators create new opportunities and helping students discover where those opportunities might lead.