District News
Washington Aerospace Scholars program participants blast off;
nine students from Seattle Public Schools chosen for first phase of program
The sky’s the limit for nine students from Chief Sealth International, Garfield and Ingraham high schools. These dedicated students have beaten out 297 other students, earning the chance to participate in the first phase of the Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) program.
The WAS program is a free, competitive Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education program for high school juniors across Washington state. It is affiliated with the NASA Johnson Space Center’s National High School Aerospace Scholars program. The goal of WAS is to excite and prepare students to pursue career pathways in STEM fields using a NASA-designed, distance-learning curriculum.
Student winners from Seattle Public Schools are:
Chief Sealth International High School
• Frank Wenn
Garfield High School
• Matthew Goss
Ingraham High School
• Andre Dubief
• Aidan Farr
• Benjamin Gardon
• Margaret Hargus
• Madeline Hubbard
• Sam Karcher
• Akira Murphy
In the first phase of the program, the students will spend the next five months working on ten online lessons and a final project. Topics for the lessons involve solving space-related math problems, writing research essays, and illustrating detailed graphics of their ideas.
The students will then compete for 160 slots in the Summer Residency session – the second phase of the program – to be held at the Museum of Flight in June and July of 2012.
Students who move on to the summer program will have the opportunity to see their ideas put in motion. They will collaborate on the Mission to Mars team project, take tours of engineering facilities, hear briefings by astronauts and take other exciting curricula. They will learn from and be supervised by a team of certified teachers, professional engineers, scientists and university students.