WSMR – Page 15 – On the Wings of Angels

SystemsGoNM Makes History Thursday at the New Discovery Education Launch Site

A new milestone in STEM education and history begins Thursday as six schools new to the SystemsGo program for this year attempt to launch 10 rockets carrying a one pound payload to an altitude of one mile into the sky. Students from Jal High School, Hobbs High School, Lake Arthur High School, Loving High School, Carlsbad High School, and Lovington High School are the first in New Mexico to attempt a successful test of these student researched, designed, engineered and constructed vehicles under the direction of the SystemsGo STEM Education program.

David Willden, SystemsGoNM coordinator along with his team and members from SystemsGo Texas spent yesterday morning instructing Range Safety Officers (RSO’s) in proper operating safety for tomorrow’s launches. Other preparations have been ongoing during the prior week to ensure readiness and success of the new launch facility and especially tomorrow’s student vehicle tests.

The new Discovery Education Launch Pad during Wednesday’s preparations.

Stage 1 and Stage 2 checks were also in progress today and will be completed tomorrow for any schools not able to attend today. Jal High School will be the first to launch tomorrow because they were the first successful team through Stage 1 and 2 checks.

Here Jal High School students move through Stage 1 and 2 vehicle readiness checks. More photos from today’s activities are available here: https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow . All today’s photos are courtesy of Rebekah Hyatt, SystemsGo.

New Mexico legislative members, NASA and White Sands Missile Range(WSMR) personnel as well as many other dignitaries and sponsors were part of a reception held today to celebrate SystemsGoNM inaugural launch tomorrow.

Stage 1 and 2 reopen for continued checks at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, with the check in for spectators at the launch site beginning at 8:00 a.m. Local sponsors and vendors are providing concessions and restrooms at the site.

Flight possibilities will be optimal tomorrow morning as the weather service is predicting the probability of 50 mph winds tomorrow afternoon. This could prevent any further launch attempts. Students please be early, and prepared with your vehicle in order to keep launches as prompt and continuous as possible.

The schedule/list for tomorrow’s launches is below. This is the schedule as printed on SystemsGo‘s website, but it will be amended as needed as to order, depending on when each team passes Stage 1 and 2 checks and arrives at Mission Control with their vehicle. Note above, that Jal has already moved into the first spot, different than listed here.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

School Name, Teacher 1/1

Carlsbad High School 1 Deb Haggerton
Hobbs High School 2 Shawna Carter
Jal High School 1 Nathan Richard
Lake Arthur High School 1 Steve Galuska
Loving High School 3 Albert Lopez
Lovington High School 2 Michael Dodson

# Schools Launching 6

# Total Rockets 10

A more formal schedule can also be downloaded at http://www.systemsgo.org/save-the-date-for-rockets-2017/ .

Here are map links for Jal Fire Department Map to Jal Fire Station, Jal, NM and Discovery Education Launch Site Map to Discovery Education Launch Pad, North of Jal, NM .

A live feed for Thursday’s launches will be available on the following Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/discoveryed and will also be linked to their science page at http://www.bringonthescience.com/ .

SystemsGo New Mexico also has a twitter feed you can join to keep up to date on what they are doing. That link is https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNM

SystemsGo New Mexico is headed up by David Willden.

Please watch the SystemsGo website, SystemsGo Facebook page, SystemsGo Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNews and this blog for upcoming information on these events.

Late Thursday evening an after report will be posted here, featuring results, pictures and some editorial content cataloging the success of the event.

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.

Rockets 2017 Begins Next Week With a New Venue in New Mexico

The launch of Rockets 2017 blasts skyward on April 27th from a brand new venue this year as six schools from New Mexico join the SystemsGo program. Last year instructors from these schools came to Willow City to observe, learn and participate in launches in order to implement the program at a new site in New Mexico.

SystemsGo New Mexico is headed up by David Willden and currently includes the schools of Carlsbad High School, Hobbs High School, Jal High School, Lake Arthur High School, Loving High School and Lovington High School. This is their first year in the program and they will attempt launching a total of 10 one pound/one mile rockets at a location near Jal, New Mexico. This new site, called the Discovery Education Launch Pad, will be open to public viewing of launches, as are all sites except White Sands Missile Range this year. A link to location information and a map link are available at http://www.systemsgo.org/events/ .

The site will be open for admittance at 8:00 a.m. and launches will commence at 8:30 a.m.

If you plan to attend Jal or any of this year’s launches please register for your attendance ticket at http://www.systemsgo.org/save-the-date-for-rockets-2017/ or they may be gotten at the gate. These are free but required for admittance to each site. Reserving them ahead at the website is preferred to obtaining them at the gate because the latter slows entrance to the site and may result in you missing the viewing of your intended launch.

You may also view any of the launches except WSMR on Livestream. That link will be available on the SystemsGo website closer to the launch. The New SystemsGo New Mexico also has a twitter feed you can join to keep up to date on what they are doing. That link is https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNM

The schedule of launches for Jal is also available at http://www.systemsgo.org/save-the-date-for-rockets-2017/ . I will post it here for launch day next week as well. I want it to be as accurate as possible so I will refrain from posting it now in case there are any late changes.

If you are in the Jal, New Mexico area, keep an eye out for this new vehicle. It just rolled out recently to support the new launch group.

If you follow this program and like to view the launches, Rockets 2017 will continue with two more launches in May. The first will be held in Smith Point just south of Anahuac, Texas for schools in the Houston area, on the weekend of May 12-14, 2017. If you have been to the Houston area launches in the past you may want to check out the SystemsGo website for information because this is a new location for that area this year. Information and a map link are available.

Next the Stewart Ranch in Willow City, Texas will host the largest of the now three launch events on the weekend of May 18-21, 2017. This testing site covers the Fredericksburg and Hill Country area schools and all Texas schools not participating in the Houston launches.

Please watch the SystemsGo website, SystemsGo Facebook page, SystemsGo Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNews and this blog for upcoming information on theses events.

The senior groups are tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rockets at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico the week of June 26-30. These are not available for public viewing or Livestream due to being tested on a military facility, but blog and SystemsGo updates will be posted online as available during that week.

More event details will be available here in upcoming days as events get closer. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will be posted during the events.

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.

Fredericksburg’s STEM Academy/Rocket Program-Spring Term Update #2 (February 21-March 31)

April 1st is tomorrow, so time is becoming a factor for the Fredericksburg STEM Academy as launch dates approach for the junior and senior groups. There are no fools here though, just several groups of future engineers working hard to meet their timelines. With March behind them there is only a little over 6 weeks left for the junior group until Rockets 2017 and their May 18th test date. The seniors have approximately 60 days as Redbird 18 is scheduled for completion two weeks before school ends to allow for preliminary systems tests.

More on these groups and their current status reports will be later in the article.

Sophomores are currently taking mid-term exams. This is due to the new schedule for classes this year which puts a full year’s curriculum into one standard semester. They have been busy using AutoCAD to create multi view drawings of objects. Dimensioning and tolerancing of these drawings will be learned next, followed by isometric drawings and 3D modeling. The students have been printing models of their multiview drawings using the newly installed 3D printer. All 3 3D printers available now are working well.

The student aide, Colby Marthaler has also been using the 3D printers to print all the parts necessary to create a model of the Falcon 9 Rocket SpaceX uses to transport satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.

Juniors had CDR’s (Critical Design Reviews) due for their rockets by March 30. Unfortunately they are just getting to them. Students will have to be studious in order to meet their May 18th launch date due to being behind schedule at this time. The payload for this rocket is a rapid growth slime mold. They have designed the payload in order to create a controlled experiment in which they should be able to determine how flight impacts the mold’s growth, negatively or positively.

The design criteria for their rocket is a one pound payload and breaking the speed of sound therefore achieving a transonic state. Currently neither criteria has been met so the group has more work to do to accomplish their goals by their launch date.

Their mid-term which is a LabVIEW development project has come along well. They are creating a workable program which requires specific methods and functions in order to attain a goal of designing and fabricating a micro test stand for Estes motors. They will be connecting a (DAQ) Data Acquisition unit to a computer and registering it to that computer in order to read sensors, and programming a control and DAQ Virtual Instrument in LabView in order to run the test stand.

March began with more fuel grain tests at test stand. Two tests were completed in the first week alone, consisting of many hours of work to accomplish each. A temperature sensor indicated a high enough value in order to cause a programmed shut down on the first test that week. After investigation, it was found that a ‘electrical noise’ caused an anomaly which gave the sensor its reading, and that it was in fact not outside normal operating parameters. The actual test did not experience any temperature concerns.

The same fuel grain was able to be used again in a 20 second burn, which allowed students to achieve a cumulative 40 second burn on one fuel grain. The shut down was disabled for the second burn, allowing the data to still record the temperatures caused by the ‘electrical noise’, but not to stop the burn test and it was a full success without any further exceptions.

Mr. Matthes was very pleased with these burns and stated , “All data was processed and showed again the test stand was producing verifiable data similar to theoretical expectations.”

Students began another round of testing this week. Six new fuel grains will be tested accounting for three tests each of two different fuel types students have been working on. The hope is that they will cycle through smoothly due to the fuel grains being prepped prior to testing.

Here Hannah Boubel is working with graphite in order to make ablative, which is a sacrificial material in the pre and post combustion chamber so the burn does not penetrate the liner and steel test cell.

In this photo, Sterling Weatherford is preparing a fuel grain for installation in to the test cell.

Along with test stand work, the students have been hard at work on Rebird 18, their Goddard level rocket slated to launch at White Sands Missile Range on June 27th. Students have already contracted with Heartland Enterprises and SRM Manufacturing for fabrications and parts have been supplied to them.

At this point in the process students are learning true cause and effect, and just how it can affect their outcomes. The entire success of the vehicle from this point forward is contingent on the group not only working as a team as a whole, but also for each individual team to stay on top of their work and outcome. Many of the components are dependent on the progress of the others. Delays on one team’s element directly affects the next team creating delays down the line and strained time schedules. Individual testing is conducted on each piece as it is finished. Full up integration and testing of any systems that allow for ground based testing is scheduled for two weeks from the end of school when the rocket is due to be complete.

“They are well on their way to a successful vehicle. The seniors will not have the luxury of adopting senioritis as there is still significant and mutually dependent work to be accomplished,” Mr. Matthes reported. “These next 60 days will be a true test of their team work, peer loyalty and persistence. ”

As the end of the school year approaches, these students are becoming more and more adept in their learning and knowledge as young and capable engineers. Their end of year rockets will be a testament to that learning, time and ability.

According to Mr. Matthes, “Students are becoming ‘plagued’ with knowledge and experience: the more they know and become aware of, the more they have to take into consideration and the more challenging the process becomes. However, it also makes for conditions more aligned with success. Additionally, if we consider these students products of FHS and the FHS Engineering, then they should be welcomed by a market hungry for what they have to offer.”

The senior group is tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rocket at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico the week of June 26-30. The current schedule for that event is as follows:

Sunday, Jun 25th Travel Day

Monday, Jun 26th T-1 and Site Set up/Rocket Prep at WC-50

Tuesday, Jun 27th Launch Day One (Three Rockets – Fredericksburg, Union Grove, Alamo Heights)

Wednesday, Jun 28th Launch Day Two (Three Rockets – Anahuac, Booker T. #1, Booker T. #2)

Thursday, Jun 29th Contingency Day

Friday, Jun 30th Travel Day

There are also launches in Houston for schools in that area the weekend of May 12-14, 2017. New for this year the Hobbs, New Mexico group of schools will launch 1/1 rockets in Jal, New Mexico on April 27, 2017, this site will also be open to public viewing.

This article is the sixth in a series, new for this school year ’16/’17 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.

Second Term Update #1 (January 9-February 21)-Fredericksburg’s STEM Academy/Rocket Program

January is past and February is waning quickly, but the spring program is really building. There are big goals and events for each class group. This semester is where their learning hits the pad literally for the junior and senior groups as they build toward Rockets 2017 and their end of class projects. There are three class groups this semester as the sophomore class begins study and the freshman class is complete until they re-enter the program as sophomores in January of 2018.

The freshman have moved on due to the new accelerated block schedule, but at the end of the semester they all agreed that communication skills were what they felt they had developed the most. They found themselves to be much more comfortable and proficient when speaking in public. Their final projects, the orange juice production plants went well as reported by Mr. Matthes. The students were all very excited about the class and course study, but not about having to wait a whole year to return to the STEM Academy.

The sophomores are just beginning their 5th week of studies since they are new to the program for this year. Their studies to this point included learning to hand draw multi-view drawings, interpreting 3D objects, and learning engineering lettering which they have recently completed. With these skills accomplished, they will be moving on to the ACC Auto CAD course within the next week.

These students have been using two older 3D printers for these projects. The printers have a relatively small build space and so limit what the students can produce on them. The district has recently received a new larger 3D printer, the MakerBot Z18 which will be available later this month. This will be a benefit to these students as well as both upperclassmen groups as it will allow for much larger production pieces and will give them the ability to prototype designs.

While junior and senior classes will use this printer more often, the sophomores will be the first to learn how to use it. Even though their current course study will still be focused on smaller printing jobs, prototyping and future uses will necessitate knowing how to use the new printer.

Juniors began work on January 23, on their transonic rocket that they will launch in Willow City in May. They have begun the initial stages of the Design and Development processes. A timeline and a problem statement have been created, and they are about midway through the research process.

They have a Critical Design Review (CDR) due before spring break. Unfortunately they have not been able to narrow down the scope of their research as of yet. This keeps them spread out as a team, and means they have to make up ground in order to make the pre-spring break CDR deadline.

They are researching rapid growth organisms for a possible payload for the rocket, and hope to be able to study how flight affects their growth.

On Friday, February 17, the juniors along with sophomores, Gloria Burns and Eston Cooke joined the juniors as Brian Evans of Space Propulsion Group provided instruction on the basics of mathematical modeling. At the end of the presentation, juniors had the opportunity to present models they had developed and then also do trouble shooting on their profiles.

Sophomores Gloria Burns and Eston Cooke with Dr. Brian Evans.

The junior students were very receptive to Mr. Evans and his instruction, alleviating numerous roadblocks and enabling rapid progress in their modelling.

Here juniors, Harrison Spisak and Jacob Weinecke make their presentations their burn model to Dr. Evans.

“Dr. Evans was down to earth and made comprehension of something really difficult, easy.”-Corbin Smajstrla

“It was nice to have rocket science explained so it wasn’t rocket science.” -Evan Knapp

Juniors have been officially invited to begin learning and participation in fuel grain motor test burns, but currently seniors are the only ones conducting any test burns.

Corbin Smajstrla and Dr. Evans at the board.

The seniors conducted their first hot fire test on Friday, February 17, while Dr. Evans from the Space Propulsion Group was in attendance. They accomplished a 10 second burn of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE).

A still photo from the burn test.

According to Mr. Matthes, ” The test was extremely successful with outstanding data acquisition that showed the motor preformed nominally, according to expected design parameters. This was very exciting to have such a good, clean burn, good data, and fitting expected performance.”

Heartland Enterprises and SRM Manufacturing created a newly designed injector plate. This allowed the class to keep their Friday deadline. In spite of the piece needing to be manufactured quickly for the project, these companies came through and the product was, “beautifully machined and performed with 10% of expectation regarding oxidizer mass flow rate,” stated Mr. Matthes.

On January 27, the Fredericsburg Middle School 7th grade GT(Gifted and Talented) group presented their payload for the Redbird #18 Rocket to the senior STEM class. It consisted of a group of sensors to measure UV Light, methane, acceleratometer, and barometric pressure.

The 7th grade GT class presentation.

New this school year, Mr. Matthes started requiring after school and extra curricular hour work on senior projects. When asked how this senior group was doing with this on their project, here is what he had to say about the group.

“There have been a solid group of students who have been putting time in during study halls and some others who have been able to commit extended numbers of hours outside of school time to keep things moving forward. These senior students have worked phenomenally. They bit off a lot to accomplish this year and are on target to meet all of their expectations. It is quite remarkable having the opportunity and privilege to work with them. A substitute recently commented that during my absence, walking into the classroom after the passing period between classes was like walking into a full-fledged workforce environment where students were all fully engaged, scheduling, designing, problem solving, and just plain working without any instruction to do so. I believe the skills these students have honed over the last 4 years through this program and all their other coursework has created a ‘product’ that any college, industry, and organization would wish to recruit.”

Keep up the great work, seniors, what an amazing and glowing endorsement.

If you follow this program and like to view the launches, Rockets 2017 will be held at the Stewart Ranch in Willow City, Texas on the weekend of May 18-21, 2017. This testing site is open to the public. Please watch the SystemsGo website and this blog for upcoming information on the event. The FHS junior group will be testing their rockets on Thursday, May 18, 2017. The senior group is tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rocket at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico the week of June 26-30. There are also launches in Houston for schools in that area the weekend of May 12-14, 2017. New for this year the Hobbs, New Mexico group of schools will launch 1/1 rockets in Jal, New Mexico on April 27, 2017, this site will also be open to public viewing.

The STEM Academy group was encouraged to attend the movie, “Hidden Figures” on Friday, February 10th at Fritztown Cinema. About 35 students from the program attended. Here is what a few of them had to say about the movie:

“The movie was about African-American women breaking social barriers in the engineering community at NASA. It should be your talent, skills, and work ethic that decide your position at your workplace, not your ethnicity or gender. I found it to be a fun/feel good movie that was well-directed and enjoyable to watch. I found myself caring about the characters and rooting for them throughout the movie which means the characterization was done well. My favorite part of the movie was the climax when they shot the marine into orbit. The entire movie was building up to this and it was worth the wait.”–John West

“I found “Hidden Figures” to be a very inspiring and thought-provoking film. The primary idea that I took away from the movie was to “look past the numbers.” During the film, NASA mathematicians had difficulty making complex calculations due to there being no existing method available to make them. The protagonist of the film “looked past the numbers” and was able to use her intuition to come up with calculations that fit the situation. In rocket science, numbers are nothing without a physical attribute to tie them to. My favorite part of the movie was when the machine that made quicker calculations than humans malfunctioned and the protagonist was brought in to confirm them. This invoked the idea that machines, although they may be faster, can never replace the need for an engineer.”–Jacob Weinecke

This article is the fifth in a series, new for this school year ’16/’17 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.

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).

Thursday, Final WSMR Launch Day

Today was the final day of testing at WSMR for SystemsGo student programs. Fredericksburg was the only official launch scheduled, with two remaining test times for any retests needed. Unfortunately it was a sad day for Fredericksburg as well. Their rocket had ignition but the injector failed therefore it never left the pad.

At first they were going to allow them a second test time at 12:30 p.m. but after inspection it was determined that they did not have enough spare components to repair the vehicle and so the second test was scrubbed.

At that point the SystemsGo team, Fredericksburg students and WSMR personnel cleaned up West Center 50 and left, officially ending our White Sands Missile Range launch operations.

This evening the team gets some much-needed rest time before returning to Fredericksburg. Except for Chelsea and Steve they are returning to Lubbock this evening and then to Fredericksburg on Friday evening. The team and the Fredericksburg students spent the afternoon seeing the New Mexico Museum of Air and Space and the White Sands National Monument, where they met the challenge of climbing and sliding down the dunes.

Tomorrow is back to Texas and a long Fourth of July Holiday weekend.

There were four out of seven rockets that left the rail this year. Seven out of seven would have been even better but this is still a good end to the season. The thing to bear in mind is that with all these tests whether they leave the rail or not there is always and element of further knowledge to be obtained from what transpired with each vehicle. That deducing, understanding and learning from both what went right and what went wrong whether the vehicle launched of not, and all the education and skills each student learned to get it to this point is the true important lesson.

Thank you so much to White Sands Missile Range for all the support, man power, time, education, entertainment, information and fun you provided in order for SystemsGo and these four schools to come out and test their vehicles. Your continued support in this education of future generations is highly appreciated.

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.

The picture on this blog piece is of the Fredericksburg rocket team this morning prior to their vehicle test. It was provided by team member Zane Brown. Team members are from left to right: Katie Habecker, Link Millard, Dorian Jones, Garrett Ottmers, Nathan Weatherford, Alex Scudder, Zane Brown, and teacher, Andrew Matthes.

Late Update to Wednesday, Launch Day 2 at WSMR

This is just a quick update to my earlier post. Booker T Washington has decided not to go for a retest on either of their failed rockets today. That means Fredericksburg is tomorrow’s only attempted launch test. It’s T time is 8:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Launch Day 2 at WSMR

The Anahuac rocket left the rail this year at 8:36 a.m. It traveled 171 meters (appx. 576.27’). The Estes motor blew out at ignition as the rocket started its lift off. This caused the rocket to spiral upward and eventually nose over and continue into the range a few hundred yards to the right of the launch rail, digging a crater and leaving dust for some distance. The Anahuac teachers were prepared and blew party horns to celebrate as soon as the vehicle came to rest. Congratulations Anahuac on your first successful launch!!!!!

The next two T times were both held by Booker T Washington High School. Both of these rockets were carrying a payload consisting of a PVC container with space pebbles that they were testing to see how they would react upon reentry to the earth’s surface.

Unfortunately it was not a good day for Booker T. They achieved success in making it to the pad, but flight was not to be. Neither vehicle left the pad.

On the 11:00 a.m. test of Golden 5 the Junior class rocket, the valve froze shut not allowing the Nitrous Oxide to mix with the fuel at ignition resulting in a small puff of smoke and a misfire.

The 2:15 p.m. test of their Senior class rocket, failed due to a fault in the ignition wire which resulted in no ignition and the system venting out the Nitrous. There is no word at this time as to whether either vehicle will be able to retest in one of tomorrow’s two available retest T’s. Even if one of the vehicles can be repaired in time there may not be more Nitrous available for them to conduct any additional testing.

At this time, the 8:30 a.m. T time is scheduled for Fredericksburg’s Red Bird #17 rocket. If no other retesting occurs, then the mission will be complete, then clean up and pack up will end the day for SystemsGo, students, and WSMR personnel.

Good luck to Fredericksburg and tomorrow and safe travels to all schools heading home.

Tomorrow’s test schedule is as follows:

8:30 a.m. Fredericksburg
11:00 a.m. Retest (1)
2:00 p.m. Retest (2)

Event details will continue to be available here. I will provide more information each morning as to how the schedule and other event details will progress for that day and how launches went for the schools testing that day. Pictures are not allowed on the range, but some pictures of teams getting ready to leave for the range with their vehicles might be available. If anything is available I will post it for your viewing pleasure.

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.

The picture was provided by parent, Teresa Moore, of the Anahuac High School Rocket team after their launch here at WSMR. Students pictured are (not in order) Anne-Marie Henry, Madalyn Orozco, Maria Magana, Kaitelynn Innerarity, Mason Duhon, Shon Patton, Dante Nguyen, Beau Cendejas, Austin Hodges, Meghan Thomas, Zack Rose, and Caleb Moore.

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