By the Numbers: A Year of Learning at Patriots Point — And What's Ahead!
A sea of students boarding the ship, moving in and out of various tour routes with their hushed laughter and chatter filling the passageways. This is nothing new to the USS Yorktown (CV-10) in this chapter of her service. As South Carolina schools are beginning a new academic year, it is only appropriate to reflect on the museum’s impact across the educational landscape in 2025-2026 and look forward to what is on the horizon for the 2026-2027 school year.
The museum’s education department offers free programs and resources for South Carolina students and teachers in grades 3-12, funded by the Education Oversight Committee’s Education Improvement Act. Options range from structured programming to enriched self-guided opportunities, and even professional development. The objective of this modern-day educational mission is to deliver standards-based, cross-curricular content that supports in-classroom learning, while highlighting the museum’s collection.
This past academic year 10,404 students from 39 school districts attended self-guided and guided experiences at Patriots Point. 5,829 of those students participated in the hands-on, six-station, 2-hour 5th grade program. 1,829 took part in The Flight Academy. The Flight Academy at Patriots Point has two initiatives: a 2-hr program for 8-12th graders and a new 8th grade 3 Point Program that serves students over the course of a semester both in-school with mobile simulators and aboard the USS Yorktown. 658 Flight Academy students completed the 3 Point Program for the 2025-2026 school year. Enriched self-guided programs brought in 2,728 students of whom received enrichment materials upon arrival on property to complement their time shipboard.
The Education Department at Patriots Point strives to meet students’ needs wherever they may be and sometimes that means reaching them in their classrooms. Patriots Point has created standards-based activity kits that include a lesson plan and consumable materials that are shipped directly to the requesting school. This year 38 teachers representing 17 school districts and 2,672 students received Activity Kit materials.
Directly supporting student learning with experiences, lessons, and activities is invaluable, but Patriots Point also understands that serving students means supporting educators. This year 93 educators participated in professional development facilitated by Patriots Point for a total of 904 direct contact hours to be used towards recertification credits. These programs aim to connect teachers to the collection, and the people and places it represents, through engaging multi-disciplinary lessons that can be taken back to school.
And… it is that time of year! Kids are back in school, and registration is open for programming and resources from the Education Department at Patriots Point for the 2026-2027 academic year. Sights are set on an even greater contribution to the community than the previous. The goal: more students and teachers being served through expanding grade-level programming and in-classroom resources.