Category: rocket program

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.

What’s All This About Rockets: Success Stories-Anissa Kneese

Welcome back to Rocket Success stories. This is the second installment of this series of Interview style articles, in which we meet individuals that studied under the SystemsGo STEM program and have gone on to build their futures on the skills it teaches. Last month we met, Robert Deaver, a 1996 graduate of the program.  This month we are looking at a young lady that is a more recent graduate also from Fredericksburg High School in 2014, miss Anissa Kneese.

Anissa is currently a college student at Texas A&M, which allows us to talk with her now and to check back with her and see exactly where her education and career choices have taken her in the future. This is in a way, the middle of her path, but the drive she has to complete her engineering goals are a direct correlation of her experience in the program.

“Before taking the rocket program classes in high school, I had no idea I was interested in engineering, I learned about the many different engineering paths. and I fell in love with problem solving. I am now working toward my degree in Mechanical Engineering thanks to SystemsGo.”

Anissa joined the STEM program out of curiosity her freshman year, because of all she had heard about it from friends and family. She quickly realized that this class would shape her future.

“After completing the first class freshman year, I was considering majoring in engineering in college. Sophomore year pushed me even more in that direction, and after junior year there was no doubt what so ever this was my future career path. Senior year was the icing on the cake!”

As she studied in the program, her reasons changed from curiosity to excitement and the class became a priority for her.

“By junior year I was so eager to go to class every day. I knew I would learn something new or something really eventful and exciting would happen. Like running a successful student designed test that caused a nearby resident to call the fire department!” Engine and fuel burn  tests can be loud and though most  folks have become accustomed to these tests, this one was particularly loud, and caused a stir, something she recalls with guarded humor.

Anissa participated on two teams. The first was the Mechanical team for static hybrid propulsion testing, and then the injector team for the Redbird #15 Rocket, as long as helping with electronics, payload and engine installation.  Her specific jobs on these projects included, “For propulsion and testing I prepped fuel grains by ensuring their size was exact, installing them in the test cell, and preparing the test cell by sealing the cell to prevent oxidizer leakage. After each test I would clean the test cell and prep the next fuel grain. I also set up oxidizer tanks and plumbing from the tanks to the test cell. During tests, I would make sure all solid and liquid weights were recorded to be used in calculations in the days to follow.”

The Redbird #15 is the rocket that her group designed to launch at White Sands Missile Range. This is where she really had to put her education to work and it presented her with her hardest problem to solve.

“The toughest problem I came across was “trouble shooting” an injector design that had mysteriously failed  in a Redbird rocket from the year before. My teammates and I designed several tests to attempt to understand the previous failure, and this proved to be quite difficult. After a redesign with new materials, the injector worked flawlessly in our Redbird rocket.”

Even with this struggle accomplished with perfect results, she considers another success the greatest her and her team accomplished during their time in the program.

“I would consider my (and my team’s) best success being the first high school team to complete a full round of three 40 second hybrid test burns. This had been attempted by several classes before us (and even ourselves the year before), so coming back the next year and being successful was a great feeling.”

The SystemsGo program teaches individual accountability as well as team coherence. Anissa found this to be one of the most important things she learned in the program.

“This program taught me countless lessons and technical approaches to problems, but the most important thing I learned was the importance of communication. It is impossible to accomplish any great task without full communication and understanding from every team member involved.”

Many of the students who have participated in this program, not only go on to higher education and careers in STEM fields, they enjoy giving back to the program where ever possible. Anissa is no exception to this, she returns each year to help as launch pad lead at the Willow City launches.  If possible she plans to continue helping and being involved with the program however possible.

“I would enjoy mentoring and helping students in the future with the design process or understanding the set up and procedures of building the static propulsion testing. I would also enjoy having a job with SystemsGo in the future. I think having experience in industry would be valuable to gain first, but I would enjoy coming back and teaching at some point.

Her current advice for students considering or currently in the program is, “work as hard as you can every day. Don’t be afraid to get sweaty and leave class with your hands dirty. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, you will learn so much if you are eager to get involved!”

Along with the fantastic education the SystemsGo STEM program provides in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields, it also helps build confidence and character. It teaches each student to reach into themselves and take pride in what they are accomplishing and can accomplish. For many students, it is a learning boost they may never have known they needed until they discovered it in themselves during the program. Anissa sums up that experience.

“I learned that I am capable of accomplishing anything I have my heart in and I’m willing to work hard to achieve.”

I would like to thank Anissa Kneese for participating in this article series.  These are written in hopes that all may understand the impact that STEM can have on your students and future employees. Having a program available at the high school level to teach, encourage and support this type of learning is instrumental to getting these students into great career futures.  Encourage your students to get involved in STEM and the SystemsGo program if it is available at your child’s school. If it is not available, look into how you can bring it to your area. This program will greatly benefit your school and children.

If you know or have a student that went through the program that would like to share their story here, please contact me in the comment section on this blog or if you follow it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn contact me there, and I will send you information to participate.

http://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.

August’s New Beginnings- Fredericksburg’s STEM/Rocket Program

The new school year is in its second week and with it, the Fredericksburg High School Engineering program has begun working toward new goals.

The program is off to a “Great start,” according to Engineering instructor, Andrew Matthes.  “We received a NASA grant to continue testing and replace some older components for safety and increased fidelity in test data.”

A date of October 21, 2016 is set for Teststand  operations to start.  A Teststand task list and working groups have been established by the Senior group.

New to the program this year is a Senior out of class work schedule. Students signed a contract requiring them to commit to a set amount of overtime/after class work time in order to meet all deadlines and complete their rocket/project for the year. The group is currently establishing a working schedule in order to implement these hours.  As for the actual rocket, the class is currently studying the rocket history portion of the curriculum.

This year (Fall semester) there are four classes.  Forty-four freshman are enrolled in two separate classes, the junior class has twelve students and the senior class has eighteen. There will be two Sophomore classes starting in the Spring semester.

This article is the first in a new series of monthly updates that will follow the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support and encourage 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.