Uncategorized – Page 20 – On the Wings of Angels

The Fredericksburg-Montabaur Verein and My Local Childhood

Last evening, December 5, 2016, I was honored to be the guest of Pit Vins and his wife, Mary Hickok at the annual Christmas party of the Fredericksburg-VG Montabaur Verein.

Pit my host is the gentleman in the Santa hat.

This is a society in partnership with our sister city of Montabaur, Germany to forge continued relationships between the German settlers in Texas and their heritage areas of Germany. They help sponsor student exchanges between the countries and other social and official visits in order to preserve the cultural heritage of the German settlers here and foster good relationships with their counter parts in Germany.

The partnership between Fredericksburg and Montabaur was approved by the Montabaur council on June 29, 1995. I was unable to procure the actual date of the establishment of the current Verein here other than that it was in 1994, but it was around the same time frame as the Deutsch-Texanische Gesellschaft Montabaur-Fredericksburg or in English the German-Texan Association which was established in Montabaur, Germany, April 12, 1994. Local history does state that then Mayor Linda Langerhans signed a “twinning agreement” between Fredericksburg and Verbands Gemeinde Montabaur on September 21, 1997 and this included surrounding towns around Montabaur such as Niederelbert. This partnership sought to find individuals interested in furthering the relationships between people of German decent from Fredericksburg and other German Texas communities and the borough of Montabaur and help with the exchange of schools and clubs .

This all came about from a trip to Germany by Nelda and George Vogel in order to find George’s family lineage. The trip fostered such warm welcome and friendships, and resulted in many subsequent trips, and eventually the FBG-Montabaur Sister City Verein was established here and the Deutsch-Texanische Gesellschaft in VG Montabaur.

Verein president, Rosemarie Mazanke states the following about current relationships, “There have been numerous visits of students and adults over the years, most recently a group of 16 High School students and 2 teachers this past October from Mons Tabor Gymnasium in VG Montabaur. Our Fredericksburg high school teacher will take a group of 15 to Montabaur in June 2017.

German Students during their October visit.

We support the local high school students in their UIL Sprachfest competition, the German Club for Zweite Weihnachten, and hosted German author Ursula Hatzfeld for a book signing in the Nimitz ballroom last May.“

The Verein’s current mission statement reads as follows and was provided by a member:

Mission
To support and promote visits between citizens of Fredericksburg, Texas and the surrounding communities and Verbandsgemeinde (VG) Montabaur, Germany in order to:
Encourage the establishment of friendly affiliations between individuals, schools, and organizations;
Encourage all types of cultural exchanges and to help create links between entities such as but not limited to respective clubs, social groups, religious communities, and sport groups; and,
Foster awareness and preservation in Fredericksburg and the surrounding area of the German-Texas history, heritage, and language by supporting, encouraging, and recognizing individuals and organizations which help perpetuate the societal benefits of this rich cultural heritage within our communities.

To open the evening we all shared in fellowship, wine, beer, and Gluwein, which my friend, Pit says that, “In Germany people drink that by the tons because since it is kept boiling hot, as the evening goes on, all the alcohol cooks away and has no more effect. ”

Members visiting before dinner.

Afterwards announcements about upcoming society events as well as events around the community for the Christmas season were shared. Examples were The Christmas Journey at Bethany Church this weekend, December 9th and 10th, the Church to Church Walk on December 13th starting at Zion Lutheran Church and ending at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, and the The Singing Christmas Tree on December 16th and 17th at the Pioneer Museum Complex.

Next we shared a wonderful meal of roast pork, scalloped potatoes, squash casserole, mixed greens salad, tea and water catered by Linda and Danny Pfiester. An array of desserts were also available donated by members.

Once dinner was complete, the group joined in singing old German Christmas Carols as well as a few in English. For me, this was actually the high light of the evening. I felt much like a child again, many of these songs with the exception of “Stille Nacht” are songs I haven’t sung since I was very young. Back then we used to memorize and sing these songs for the Christmas programs at church. It was part of what Christmas used to be. Now very few still know the language, except for the rapidly fading older congregation members and we no longer host our annual German service since Pastor Arhelger passed away many years ago. The German influence on the Christmas program doesn’t exist anymore so the children aren’t taught these songs. Therefore for me, many old pictures though fading, danced quite happily in the halls of my memory last evening, that alone made this encounter with the Montabaur Verein well worth my time.

Dinner and singing around the tables.

The celebration was hosted at the beautifully, Christmas decorated Golden Hub Senior Center.

If you are interested in the society, their annual meeting is January 23, 2017 at the Nimitz Museum Ballroom at 5:30. Memberships are $20 per year. The groups meets four times annually for a picnic or party. They can be contacted through the current president, Rosemarie Mazanke at 830-997-4967. Unfortunately their webpage is members only at this time, but they are working on a way to update that in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving All

I had planned to post something that I had written in the past for Thanksgiving, only to discover I couldn’t find anything I had written in the past for Thanksgiving. How sad, I thought, such a wonderful holiday and I have never taken the time to write a word about it. Well, now I shall remedy that, even if at the moment I have no idea what I plan to say. So you will just have to bear with me a bit!

It is odd that I haven’t taken the time to write about this holiday since I know it is one of my favorites and I know many say the same. I think it stands out as such because it involves all the wonderful aspects of a holiday without so much commercial fuss. Yes, it does still have some, but not like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.

It is designed as a holiday of thanks and sharing of all that we have, so we take the time to get together with family and friends and prepare and share food, fellowship, fun, parades, football, hunting, church, prayer and thanks. We share sheer joy at just being together. Our gifts for this particular holiday are our food, our joy, our love, and our companionship. We wrap them in smiles, hugs, tears and laughter.

We relax, visit, watch football, play games and eat all day long, and in our case late into the night. In fact sometimes it becomes a campfire party later in the evening.

The biggest stress is preparing food and cleaning at the house. Yes I said it that way on purpose because quite often all the cleaning never gets done (mostly dusting, the floors and bathrooms are clean-hey if you can’t handle that, write your name in the dust and then politely leave through the same door in which you came), and my family never seems to mind. What didn’t get done will get finished as the Christmas decorations go up next week. Besides, I live in a sand field and I can dust today and it will look like I never did by tonight, especially if the windows are open which they have been off and on lately. But I digress, that is not the point. The point is we get together for this holiday to give great thanks and to just plain eat and have fun.

The stressful stuff starts on Friday as we start shopping for that next biggest holiday of Christmas. But for Thanksgiving Day, wake up, watch the sun rise and go enjoy your family. I know that is what I am going to do. Actually most of them are coming to my house. I wish every last one of them was, but unfortunately some due to circumstances just cannot. I pray that where ever they are, they are safe and have a wonderful day anyway.

God bless and give thanks for all you have, and pray for those less fortunate than you that may not being having such a wonderful day. May God bless and keep them and fill their needs as well.

Happy Thanksgiving All may you have a wonderful and blessed day.

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.

Happy Halloween-The Final Fare Cafe’

My arms were full of food which I balanced against the wall as I opened the cooler door and reached in groping for the light switch on the wall inside. As my hand finally made purchase of the switch, someone else’s hand clamped tightly over my wrist preventing me from turning the light on. Stunned I shrieked briefly, dropping my load, before standing there wide-eyed, and still, unable to move and unsure if I should. As far as I knew, I was alone, all of the other staff in the restaurant had gone home, so I had no idea who to expect. After a few seconds I finally gathered my wits, or perhaps lost them, and hollered, “Who’s in there? Let go of me and show yourself.”

There was no answer, but the hand suddenly released me and I yanked my arm back and slammed the cooler door. I knew there was a safety latch inside, and whoever was in there could still get out. Grabbing a rolling-pin off a rack near the door, I waited. Nothing happened, not even a sound. My hands shook, and my wrist still felt the imprint of icy fingers as I braved the door again. I grabbed the latch and yanked the door wide backing away quickly. No one came out. I eased closer and peered into the darkness, seeing nothing.

“It’s ok, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said still brandishing my rolling-pin, and slowly reaching around to the switch. This time I flipped it on and as light flooded the cooler, I looked around, seeing absolutely no one, only racks full of food.

I braced the door open and began picking up and moving my supplies into the cooler, keeping a watchful eye. As I turned to leave and reached for the switch, it clicked off, on its own. A coincidence I told myself as I hurried out and shut the door.

I knew no one had walked past me while I loaded supplies into the cooler, but I searched the restaurant looking for the intruder.

The place always took on an eerie silence when it was empty after dark, which I had grown used to, and usually welcomed it after a long busy day. I was always here late preparing things for the breakfast crowd.

The restaurant was a renovated underground basement, beneath an old rock building full of little rooms which had been renovated and filled with stores designed to delight any shopper. Noises like pops, creaks, and whines from the old wood, rock, and metal reacting to temperature changes and wind whistling through old cracks and crevices were normal. In the late hours, the building had a life of its own, with a full chorus of sounds.

I had listened to the old building speak to the night in its usual way as I worked. Sometimes this seemed like being an eaves dropper on a private conversation. This particular evening while I worked, this conversation had seemed even more animated as though some sort of real excitement were being discussed. The wind howled outside, branches scraped against windows, the tin awning above the outside entrance popped and complained as the temperature cooled, and the wood stairs creaked as though they still bore the footfalls of the day. My small noises as I put away cooking pans and shoved boxes seemed loud in the absence of other human noises, but the building seemed as though it were trying to be heard over me tonight. I had become lost in my own thoughts.
If I had been truly present in nature’s conversation on this evening, I would have realized sooner, that the building had gone from highly animated to quiet. It had ceased its conversation, as though in hushed stillness we both waited to see what I would find.

It came in the form of blackness, as every light in the restaurant went out. I moved toward the light switch by the back door where shallow light filtered down the outside stairwell from a street light a few yards away. Just as I reached for it, the light nearest me came on, followed by each light across the restaurant, one by one.

I turned to walk back into the kitchen, watching the lights resume burning; there on the floor in my path set one of the very frying pans I had previously put away. I picked it up glancing around as I did, “Ok, who is here?” I laughed nervously, “Come on, show yourself!”

As the last lights came on, I saw him walk toward me dressed in an old style, gray pen stripe suit and a black top hat. Just for a fleeting second he was there, and then he was gone.

There was the sudden loud crashing of several pots onto the tile floor in the kitchen. I turned in time to see the last of them fall from their shelf as though someone had swept them off from one side to the other. I saw no one there to have caused their descent. I rather cautiously began picking them up and replacing them on the shelf. As I placed the last one back in its spot, another one fell, just missing my head. I tried putting it away several times and each time it clattered past me to the floor.

“Alright, so you don’t want that one up there. How about we just leave it on the stove?” I asked setting it on the nearest burner. As I looked up, I was startled to see him standing next to me. He reached and moved the pan from the front burner to the back, and then took two steps away and disappeared.

I stood still, waiting. Then five minutes after his disappearance, the building resumed it former chatter.

I finished my work looking over my shoulder all evening and then went home. The next day the pan I had left on the stove, had been put away again.

“Thank you to whoever put the pan away that pan I left it on the stove last night,” I said.

“There wasn’t a pan on the stove when we came in,” was the unanimous response.

One of the other cooks stopped and gave me an earnest look, “You met him, didn’t you?”

“Met who?” I asked, not sure I wanted to share the previous evening’ events.

“Dr. Fritz, our resident ghost,” he answered.

I said nothing.

During that day, the good doctor, took a special interest in me. He moved my cup and hid my spatula. Sometimes he would even lay the utensil I was searching for by my side for me to find. I even saw him walk by a few times, as did other staff and even some patrons.

That evening I found myself alone again. I was cleaning the stove which still had hot food on it when he appeared in a rage and threw the pot and its contents at me, and I barely had time to dodge the mass of it. I tried to ignore this and just clean it up, when he shoved another thankfully empty pot off the shelf above onto my head.

As I stood up from cleaning his mess, I realized there were several other ghosts walking the premises. Each wore white gowns that tied shut in the back and they appeared to be searching for someone or something. He was watching them too, looking distraught. Occasionally it seemed they spoke to one another in passing; mumbled voices I could hear, but not understand.

As I worked, they all disappeared again, and it was only him and me. He sat with his head in his hands at a corner table, ignoring me, which I welcomed. I finished my work and left that night.

He greeted me and some of my staff early that next morning with a glass bowl crashing at our feet as we entered the door. Several of the other ghosts were with him. He moved from one to the next to the next as though observing them. At least it was a slow day, but I noticed that these other ghosts, appeared to be patients still dressed in hospital gowns, perhaps whom the good Dr. lost some many decades past, and they seemed to account for his mood.

Some of the patrons observed theses ghosts walking right through tables as though nothing was there. Others would lie down on the tables as though sleeping and simply disappear. None of our regular customers seemed anything but intrigued by all this, leading me to believe I was the last to know of our paranormal friends. The dishes crashing in the kitchen, only mildly startled any of our customers.

I was sure they thought we were really having a bad day back there, and I supposed we were. A bad mood day for the ghost doctor resulted in our subsequent hardships. Before the evening was over I had to get stitches from the cut a large chef’s knife had left across my arm when it sailed through the air at me. Luckily the last of our customers had left just before this happened. Perhaps a courtesy he afforded us.

I have found that the customers come here because they are fascinated with eating where the dead still walk the rooms.
Why do we all still work here? Why not find another job you might ask? The question is, why leave? The good doctor is temperamental, but he hasn’t lost a patient in 100 years, which makes us relatively safe, except minor mishaps of his moods. And the ones he lost are still walk the floors of a century old renovated hospital morgue, known as The Final Fare Café.

Happy Halloween all! Hope you have a fun and safe night!

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What’s All This About Rockets: Success Stories–Robert Deaver

In 1996 in the small town of Fredericksburg, Texas a high school Aerospace program was begun and built literally from the classroom skyward as then, teacher, Brett Williams, developed a plan to build and launch rockets in a classroom setting in order to teach and implement a STEM curriculum. This class originally known as Principles of Technology (the POT Class, as it was fondly referred too), later became the SystemsGo program of Education In Motion, teaching students all over the state and now New Mexico too how to use the principles of STEM to build a career.

In this series of Interview style articles, we will meet individuals that studied under this program and have gone on to build their futures on the skills it teaches. The first gentleman we will meet, is Robert Deaver.

When speaking with indiviuals that have been through this STEM program, especially in the beginning, one thing stands out. Most of them started out in the program because the course name/description sounded interesting, and it provided a science credit. As years went by and the program became known for building and launching rockets, that in itself became a big draw for the program, although most participants still did not expect it to have the impact on their career choices that it did.

Robert, when asked why he got involved in the STEM program, was no different. “The class name sounded interesting and it counted as a science credit.”

That simple approach drew in the first classes that set forth to build a rocket, launching the much more valuable vehicle of their futures as time and learning evolved.

Robert was in the class during its ground breaking days, working on the construction and flight of the Red Bird #1, #2 and #3 rockets. These were the very formative first two years of the program as students and teacher learned together exactly what it took to create these projects. At first this was just a really fun and new concept of hands on learning and teaching that the students enjoyed.

The original class was only a one year class, but students really took to it and then this “science credit” soon became a class that students took because they wanted to experience it again.

“The course was so much fun I asked if i could take it again and was allowed. I initially took the course because it sounded interesting. I took it a second time because it was fun and challenging,” Robert stated when asked what his reasons were for taking the course.

Robert credits the program with setting him on his career path. He earned a BS in Electrical Engineering a the University of Texas at San Antonio and a MS in Computer Engineering at the University of Tennessee. Robert worked for IBM, Dell, and after graduation, Real Time Systems, where he spent the last four years designing embedded systems that are used world-wide. After his recent marriage he moved to Boerne, where he started a new career as a hardware engineer at Futurex in Bulverde.

“I did not go directly from high school into an engineering program in college, but being exposed to the ideas and concepts of engineering in the Principles of Technology (precursor to the StystemsGo program) led me there eventually. I learned about Real Time Systems through volunteering with SystemsGo and after I graduated applied for a job with RTS and was hired.” Robert stated.

In his time in the program he worked on 3 of the Red Bird Rocket projects, #1, #2, and #3. On all three, Avionics and Electronics were his main team focus therefore he was instrumental in Altimeter configuration on all three. On RB#1 he also worked on the Audio/Video Recording and Transmission, and the Fill and Fire system design and construction. On RB#2 he took on the Recovery System design, and on RB#3 the Airframe and Fin design.

Live video transmission from rocket to ground is what he remembers as the worst problem that he tried to solve while working on the RB#1 rocket.

“The electronics were ‘fiddly’ and although it worked well on the ground, we were not able to get it functional during launch.”

In spite of this, RB#1 is still what he remembers as his best success from the program.

“I watched as a rocket that my team and I researched, designed, and built from scratch soared off the launch pad. That feeling of accomplishment is truly indescribable!”

During these years he learned that he really liked working with electronics. He also learned how to work on large projects as a team.

“The Red Bird 1, Redbird 2, and Red Bird 3 were by far the largest projects I had participated in at that time. Each project required interaction with others on my team and with other teams to complete.”

Even with all he learned he still did not realize the impact this program would make on his career choices until he was in college.

“During engineering school, I realized how much more prepared I was due to the project and team interaction skills I learned in what later became the SystemsGo Program.”

When I asked Robert what advice he would give to current and future students in the program, here is what he had to say, “If you even think you are interested in engineering take these classes and pay attention. The problem solving and team work skills you learn in the SystemsGo program will be invaluable once you get to college.”

Another success of this program is that students from past years come back year after year to volunteer with the program. Many take time out of school and careers to do this. Robert is no exception. He volunteers annually for the Central Texas, South Texas, and Goddard launches. He has also been named a board member, where he is happy to be able to, “help shape the program.”

I would like to thank Robert Deaver for participating in this article series. He is only the first in what I hope to bring to you as an ongoing series of success stories. 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.

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?????

You may have noticed that this blog has a yearly burst of articles that follow a non-profit business, known as SystemsGo, and the related high school rocket program, where students build and launch rockets at various locations around Texas, and well as White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. While this looks really fun and interesting, what is it all about and how has it benefited education and our students’ futures?

This is the beginning of a series of articles about just how it has shaped the lives of individuals that have participated in the program. First off it is part of an educational push to get more students into what is known as the STEM program of learning, and then out into the work force in related fields. You may have seen or heard TV and radio commercials backing the STEM initiative. One such example is the US NAVY. They carry radio and TV commercials stating the benefits of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics curriculums and the necessities of these skills to jobs in the military and the civilian work force.

The SystemsGo program teaches all of these core classes as well as teaching business applications with it. It helps students learn their strengths and weaknesses in these areas and how to work individually and as a team in order to accomplish a large project. They learn how to manage time and project teams, do project and work analysis, order supplies and inventory items for the project, write documentation and proposals for the project, as well as doing the actual STEM based project elements.

This program began in Fredericksburg High School in 1996, making this its 20th year since its implementation. The following spring the first Red Bird Rocket was sent skyward. In 1999, the first Goddard level Red Bird Rocket was launched at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Since its humble beginnings it has grown from one small town school to currently 48 Texas schools, large and small. Starting next year, 7 New Mexico schools will also begin in the program with their own launch site in New Mexico, participating at the smaller launch levels beginning with Tsiolkovsky(1 pound/1 mile high) next year and then adding Oberth(achieving transonic velocity under 1300′) hopefully the following year. Of all these schools, 9 are trained and 5 are actively participating at the Goddard(35 pound payload attempting to reach 80,000 to 100,000′-WSMR) level.

This equivolates to more than 10,000 students that have gone through the program, and by my personal estimates, that may be closer to 15,000. Because records from before 2007 are not available, and records after that time are not complete that estimate is known to be on the low-end. At a rate of 17 students per class per grade level in a 4 year program across 48 schools that equals 3264 students a year learning this valuable academic skill set to better their futures. That is a lot of our college age and current work force that have been impacted by the SystemsGo Rocket program.

If even half of these students followed a STEM career path, that is a bigger success story than any other school sponsored program, and this program is academic based. This is not to throw punches at other extra curricular programs, they all have benefits to the individuals involved in them, but on average, the number of success stories from this program versus the number from two of the bigger programs, ei. athletics and band are quite impressive.

The following are purely observational statistics not exact documented statistics but they do give you an idea. Out of my three children, 2 have been in the rocket program, 2 have been in athletics, and all three were in band in high school and this is what I observed from their years as well as this year.

For example, the high school band here has approximately 135 students in it. That averages out to about 33 per grade group. Of those 33 students 1-5 may pursue music into college and a career. Out of the whole four-year group, 20 might be music majors. While that is still good it still not a quarter of the group.

Athletics has an even larger student base. I don’t know exact numbers but a close estimate across the board girls and boys, there are close to 300 students involved plus or minus a few that may be in more than one sport. That translates to about 75 students per grade class. Out of that 75 students spread across 19 sports if at least one from each sport goes on to a career in the athletic field. That is still less than 1/3 of the student base involved.

An average class in the STEM program is usually around 17. This year’s class had 14. That is about 68 students in any given school year that are in the program. These are much smaller numbers than athletics or band, but by comparison, this academic based program has a much higher rate of students, that not only pursue higher learning in one of these fields, but also achieve a career in their chosen field. Out of the 14 from this year’s class, I was able to get information on 8 of them, and 6 of those are pursuing a STEM related field. On average, 1/2 to 3/4 of the students from any one graduating rocket class go on to pursue a STEM related career. Those that do not, still state that what they learned from this program helped them to choose their career path and taught them many skills that will carry on into their future work place needs.

There is record of SystemsGo alumni working at NASA Stennis and Johnson Space Centers, SpaceX, Ball Engineering, Elon Musk’s Solar City, FMC Technologies, United Space Alliance, Real Time Systems, Ameristar, Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Systems, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, Halliburton, Rutgers Demmings, Petro Engineering, Department of Defense, US Airforce, and the US Navy. These are just the handful that they have been able to follow, and a few of these employers have several SystemsGo alumni working for them. Not only that several alumni come back each year to help SystemsGo with their launches and some are regular team members.

These students are successful members of the workforce and it all started with this rocket program. Each student starts out the program curious and hoping to do something really challenging and fun, and they definitely get all that and more. By the time they reach their junior and senior years in the program and begin building rockets, they are also building their futures, discovering who they are, what their strengths are, and what they are truly interested in doing in those futures. This program is a proven method of helping them achieve the knowledge base, skills, and the interest in careers that will help them accomplish success. Students from this program go into college ahead of the curve with experience that is learned and achieved, not just taught. Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering are the big jobs of not only today, but the future. These students are ready to go out and meet the challenges of these careers.

So the next time you see these rockets in the news and someone asks, “What’s all this about rockets?” Tell them that it is about the future of our world. Tell them that with each rocket built, these students make their small mark in history and it drives them to move forward to make their bigger mark in the future. These are the technological innovators to watch, because they go on to good jobs and strive to accomplish great things. These are student success stories. And if they are asked,

“How did the SystemsGo/Rocket program influence your career path?”

See for yourself, here are just three past students’ answers:

“I did not go directly from high school into an engineering program in college, but being exposed to the ideas and concepts of engineering in the Principles of Technology (precursor to the SystemsGo program) led me there eventually. I learned about my current employer through volunteering with SystemsGo and after I graduated applied for a job with Real Time Systems; I was hired.”–Robert Deaver, FHS graduate 1998.

“Through the two years I was in the Rocket Program, I was able to work with several groups of people on projects. And not only one piece of the rocket, but coordinating, scheduling, and planning with other members to make sure everything was working together. During my second year, I realized that I did not love to do all of the calculations and theory to construct the rocket, but instead more enjoyed dealing with the people and management side of the project. This led me to choose business management and business finance as my dual major so I could help support these people who did work on projects but not actually do the engineering to create the product.”–Derrick Loth, FHS graduate 2012

“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 Kneese, FHS graduate 2014.

SystemsGo is currently working toward having a better data base of its Alumni which will help keep more accurate numbers of students and alumni and follow them into their careers so that even more parents, students, and teachers can see the benefits of this program and the results it can achieve. STEM is our future so get involved and encourage your school and students to get involved in this hands on, “education in motion” system of learning.

In future articles, I will be sharing interviews with past SystemsGo students on how the program affected them and influenced their career choices. If you are or if you know a student that would like to participate in sharing their information and stories here please message me either on this blog or in a PM on Facebook with contact information and I will get back to you.

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.

Friday, SystemsGo’s Rockets 2016 Officially Ends as Team Travels Home and Transitions into Next Year Preps

At 7:30 a.m. this morning, the SystemsGo team and Fredericksburg students traveled home from White Sands Missile Range, arriving safely in Fredericksburg around 5:30 p.m.

WSMR marks the end of another successful year with launches in Houston, Willow City included. The group helped test 90 Tchaikovsky and Oberth rockets and 7 Goddard level rockets for the Rockets 2016 season.

Now the volunteer staff returns to their daily lives and the SystemsGo team enjoys a much needed break before continuing with more schools, students and rockets. It won’t be long and the “launch season” will be back again with Rockets 2017. This coming season will start a little earlier with launches in April for the new New Mexico schools that will be coming online. It should prove to be an exciting year.

For now, SystemsGo transitions back to helping schools and teachers implement this STEM based program so that more students can participate in this system of learning.

That concludes Friday’s WSMR Rocket update.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited. SystemsGo is a Texas-based STEM curriculum program.

Team photo includes from left to right, (SystemsGo founder), Cade Ottmers, Brian Heffner, Josh Hampton, Chelsea Burow, Gene Garrett, Steve Burow, Randy Kuhlmann, Robert Dever, and Andrew Matthes (FHS STEM program instructor).

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