CHARLOTTE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In a remarkable achievement, a group of high school students from Dickson County have been chosen by NASA to participate in a groundbreaking experiment.
The students, who are part of the after-school STEM program at Creek Wood High School, are set to work alongside NASA engineers in an endeavor that will take them out of this world.
Yvonne Schloangen, who initially joined Creekwood High School as a Biology teacher, now serves as the graduation and STEM coach for the after-school program.
"Every school should have this. This is the best way for kids to learn – hands-on, sparking curiosity. That's why I became a teacher."
The STEM program at Creek Wood High School offers a diverse range of activities, including building drones, robotics, coding, and creating video games.
For students like Dalaina Wilson, a junior in the program, the opportunities provided have been invaluable.
"It's been a great help. Without them, I probably would have never gotten as far as I have," Wilson expressed.
However, the pinnacle of their achievements came when they were selected as one of the 60 winning teams for NASA's third TechRise Student Challenge.
TechRise in its third year, is a STEM challenge for 6th to 12th graders that offers students the opportunity to design and test their own innovative solutions for space exploration and the study of Earth, while getting hands-on insight into the payload design and flight test process.
Creekwood High School's experiment proposal, focusing on Lunar Mapping and Object Detection, stood out among the submissions.
Austin Alberd, a senior in the program, shared his excitement.
"We have this national organization backing us and we have them as our support resource. So, it's really exciting," he said.
The students will collaborate to turn their proposed experiment into reality ahead of NASA-sponsored suborbital flight tests scheduled for this summer.
Their experiment involves launching a camera equipped with a microcontroller into space. The camera will capture images of the lunar surface, while the microcontroller, powered by artificial intelligence, will analyze the images and identify points of interest.
Ms. S, as the students affectionately refer to Schloangen, believes that participating in this lunar experiment is a testament to the students' potential.
"This is just another way to show her kids they can reach beyond the stars," she said.
Each winning team, including Creek Wood High School, will receive $1,500 to build their experiments, along with technical support from Future Engineers.
