Working with Intech Collegiate HighSchool

As part of the Chimeara project in the past we have helped Intech Collegiate High School with their rocket launches for the TARC competition.

Jeffrey Prows as a member of the National Association of Rocketry provided support for their first qualifying launch attempts on Monday.  None of the teams were able to meet recover time requirements.  Their second attempt will be on the 27th.  These kids have done a lot of good work and I'll try to get some video of their next launch.

President Obama's "Educate to Innovate"

"President Obama has launched an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This campaign will include efforts not only from the Federal Government but also from leading companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies to work with young people across America to excel in science and math." 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/educate-innovate

Civil Air Patrol

We were able to share a presentation with last year's Chimaera rocket team! We gave a brief presentation about the reason we are going our project and how far we have gotten to 24 Civil Air Patrol cadets.

After about 20 minutes of trying to find a projector, then trying to get the computer unlocked, then moving the kids around we were finally able to start the presentation.

Jessica Anderson started us out with an introduction to last years Rocket Team.


Kyle Jeppson finished up the Rocket presentation.

We had Sarah Isert give our introduction, Mark Warr show our vehicle concept and conops, Andy Christensen gave an overview of the rotorcraft and controls, and Jeff Prows finished up the presentation with talking about our jet engine and website.

For some reason, it is not letting me upload pictures... but I will try again later!

MESA Outreach 2009-11-03

Nathan Hoffer, Anthony Meeks, and Vicki Ragsdale were able to give a short presentation to 60 MESA students at the Space Dynamics Lab on November 3, 2009. The presentation mostly consisted of the Apollo missions and the upcoming Constellation missions. The necessity of trainers was also discussed with a brief overview of our vehicle and how we are coming along with it. The jet engine made a guest appearance and was a hit.

Here Nathan and Anthony spend some precious time with our baby, the Rhino, before the kids come!




A view from the platform



Vicki gives some history of the Apollo lunar landing missions.



Anthony showing off the jet engine... He tried so hard to show his enthusiasm...

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After our presentation, we helped Gayle show the students the exhibits in the SDL Atrium.


Anthony showing off Cirris which was launched in the early 1990s to observe Earth's atmosphere and radiation... these kids weren't born until 1998....

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Although there is not much evidence that Nathan participated in this outreach activity, he not only presented and helped with discussions in the SDL Atrium but was also the one behind the camera! Thanks Nate!

We were able to contact 60 students in 6th and 7th grades! It was very successful. All the teachers and Gayle thanked us much.

First Blog post ever!

This is a blog that was set up as a branch of the LPSRV website.  This section is to be a place to put up our pictures and particularly talk about our efforts in outreach to teach elementary to high school students how cool engineering is.