Category: Fredericksburg STEM Academy

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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They also toured Johnson Space Center.

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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.

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

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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.

September Highlights- Fredericksburg’s STEM/Rocket Program

The school year is now into it’s seventh week. September has come and gone and the Fredericksburg High School STEM Academy has been working steady at all levels. Each group has new skills they are learning, goals they are working to achieve and events they are working towards.

Mr. Matthes says that, ” The Freshman are great! Already I have seen an improvement in their presentation skills. They have also been successful in finishing the structural engineering fix for the SystemsGo launch tower, and have followed up with a PMA (post mission analysis) and current event report.”

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This is the second period Freshman class with their structures. Students including in the picture, in no alphabetical order are as follows: Jowad Aysheh, Gloria Burns, Luke Duderstadt, Manuel Enciso, Jack Fox, Jack Gallagher, Jacob Hinterlach, Thomas Johnson, Troy Kneese, Aquilino Perez, Zoe Rivera, Darien Robles, Jessen Stableford, Noah Stotz, Deja Turkett, Alek Vasquez, Calissa Vollmar, Dalton Waters, Joshua Wienecke,  and Zachary Willis.

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This is the third period Freshman class with  their structures. Students including in the picture, in alphabetical order are as follows: Dylan Ahrens, Jarrett Beard, Jorge Giral, Blake Boubel, Chad Braden, Jacob Brown, Esten Cooke, Samuel Cowsar, Ryan Davis, Gavin Eckert, Tucker Elliot, Frank Fackovec, Cathryn Huff, Brendon Huynh, Abel Jaimes, Ryan Majors, Antonio Martinez, Tristan McDonald, Gabriela Moreno, Robert Sanchez, Landon Sparrow, Carl Wilger, Lane Wallendorf, and Landon West.

The freshman will be traveling to several companies to investigate how engineering plays a part in their industries. This will take place over the next three months in three separate trips. Included in these trips are: Caterpillar Manufacturing, Aqua Power Cutting, Soutwest Research Institute (SwRI), Toyota Manufacturing, and Center for the Intrepid, all out-of-town trips, and Fischer and Wieser, Heartland Enterprises, Ltd. , Swissomation, Kager Industries, and Rode’s Iron and Pipe locally.  During the month of October they will visit Caterpillar Manufacturing and Aqua Power Cutting.

The Juniors are currently working in the R&D (Research and Development) element of the curriculum after having completed building and launching their Generation 1 model rockets. During this phase they are working on modeling the motor burn.

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Junior class with the Generation 1 rockets.

Seniors are alternating between rocket history and  work on the test stand and testbed. They are currently in a break from the history but will rejoin it in a couple of weeks. Mean while they have  conducted successful CDR’s (critical design review) for test stand that generated positive and developmental feedback.  They have also had success updating the testbed. Wiring and programming issues have been corrected,  they were able to create a new tank system which will increase safety in the fill and weigh of nitrous operating systems, as well as succeeding in making the testbed more frictionless.  Their senior rocket is still in the works as they continue in the design  development of the vehicle.

New this year, the seniors created rocket history children’s books.  Students will be doing recordings of themselves reading the books, and both the books and the audios will be sent to the Fredericksburg Elementary School where students there will be able to read the books and hear the high school authors read the books to them.

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According to Mr. Matthes, “Their rocket history children’s books were awesome!”

On November 7 & 8, the senior group has a chance to go to the NASA Johnson Space Center,  for flight profile reviews, grant updates, and a possible preliminary design review. Three students will go for sure, and those will be named at a later date.

Seniors, here is your challenge for the month, according to Mr Matthes, “If you complete the analysis of historic test data from the teststand then you will all be eligible to attend this trip. He would like to see that happen and take you all. Can you meet the challenge? Next month’s edition of this article series will publish the answer to this challenge. Now is your chance to show my readers and Mr. Matthes that you can meet the challenge.

This article is the second 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.