American Experience: Fly Girls
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- 6–12
- Subjects
- science (technology & innovation), social studies (United States history)
- Provider
- PBS
- Special requirements
- Shockwave is used to view the interactive maps. Either Quicktime or RealVideo is necessary to view the video clips.
Legal
This catalog record is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license applies to the content of this page only and does not apply to the referenced website.
PBS has developed this website as a companion to their film Fly Girls, part of the American Experience series. Using appealing resources such as interactive maps, extended interviews with female aviators, and timelines, students can learn more about the the women who signed up to fly with the U.S. military during World War II. "Wives, mothers, actresses and debutantes who joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) test-piloted aircraft, ferried planes and logged 60 million miles in the air."
The program description and enhanced transcript provide context for those who may not have watched the film or for checking a fact. Primary source documents include official WASP statistics, correspondence, pilot records, and a WASP songbook. Special features highlight the history of the B-29 and even offer video clips of the "superfortress" as well as a tour of the plane.
Educators may want to check out the Teacher's Guide, which contains ideas for classroom discussion topics and assignments related to the themes of this film.
