Fall Highlights (Oct. 1-Nov. 18)- Fredericksburg’s STEM/Rocket Program

It is mid November and time to  review once more all that the Fredericksburg High School STEM Academy has been working on throughout the past seven weeks.  Each group has new skills they are learning, goals they are working to achieve and events they are working towards.

During the month of October the Freshman visited Caterpillar Manufacturing,  where  Warren Houston, Caterpillar plant manager, acted as the groups’ host during their tour.  They also toured Aqua Power Cutting, where owner BJ Millard showed them around and gave demonstrations.  Mr. Millard’s two sons have both participated in the STEM Academy.

The following photo is from their visit to Caterpillar Manufacturing.

On Monday November 21, they will visit  Toyota, Center for the Intrepid, and Southwest Research Institute (SwRi).

They have also been learning about Electrical Engineering. Keith Kunz a representative of Teledyne, formerly Real Time Systems, was on site Thursday, November 10 for subject presentations.

The juniors have been studying aerodynamic drag, resistance, and impulse momentum theory.  They are completing work on the test stand burn models and the associated fuel grain burn simulations. After this they will be moving on to new heights, attempting to reach 1900 feet on  C6-Estes motors in Generation 3 rockets.  These rockets are designed using the same RockSim software used to design rockets they will launch at Willow City next year. This is a lesson in design and construction and each must match identically their design.

The  whole senior group made a trip to  NASA Johnson Space Center on Monday and Tuesday, November 7 and 8. Only two were unable to attend, one due to family complications and the other was attending State Marching Contest on Monday with the FHS Band but joined the group later.

On Monday they collectively made a Grant Presentation to NASA. Mr. Matthes reports that, “they did wonderfully.”

  

On Tuesday,  Ian  Kendrick,  Sterling Weaterford,  Nathan Bain and David Becker presented a flight readiness profile. “NASA was impressed with test-stand updates and the focus on analysis and improved data acquisition,” according to Mr. Matthes.

They also toured Johnson Space Center.

  

Students had time for fun while in Houston as well.  On Monday,  after dinner, students spent time at Kemah Boardwalk. Interestingly the “Crane Game” was the entertainment of the evening, pitting them against each other to see who could pluck the most stuffed animals.  Reportedly, Ricky Robles was the winner.

    

Those not involved in Tuesday’s presentation went to Space Center Houston where a good time was had by all.

   

The STEM Academy would like to extend many thanks to Mr. Logan Minshew, FHS Counselor and CTE coordinator. He took the time to attend this field trip and drive the group.

In other senior news, even though there is still quite a bit more to be done on test-stand, they have made good strides and are progressing forward diligently. They are back at work with rocket design as well.

In a related note, Mr. Matthes reports that they held their first Engineering Advisory Committee meeting on Friday, November 11. Members present were Brian Evans (Space Propulsion Group), Jay Mallinckrodt (Heartland Enterprises), and Scott Netherland (SystemsGo). Mark Cornett, Allen Nance (Teledyne), Luke Morin (SRM Manufacturing), and Logan Minshew (FHS Career and Technology Coordinator) were unable to attend.

This article is the third in a new series of monthly updates that will follow the Fredericksburg STEM Academy/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support, encourage, and challenge students in the program as they share their working status and accomplishments throughout the year in the program. These publications will be available for tags and re-posting.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org . Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.