JOPLIN, Mo — It’s one thing to learn about a subject by reading about it — but being able to learn by seeing can be even more educational.

That was the case for some area home school students who took a trip, today, to the Freedom of Flight Museum in Joplin. It’s located inside the old Joplin Regional Airport terminal.

Museum president Darryl Coit says the goal of the field trip is to introduce kids to the world of aviation — and the Joplin area residents who’ve played a role in the industry. He says tours like this usually end up with at least one of the kids getting involved in aviation at some level.

“I know there is, we’ve had some kids come back to us later on telling us that they’ve started thinking about lessons, some have joined the civil air patrol to start getting some education there,” Coit said.

Students also got to go up in the control tower and even gave it their best shot at safely landing a model airplane.

Tours of the facility started back in 2015. They stopped during the pandemic, before being brought back last year.