Student Celebrations
Seven juniors selected to Washington Aerospace Scholars program
Seven juniors from Seattle Public Schools are participating in the first phase of the Washington Aerospace Scholars Program. Selected are:
• Alexander Chase - Garfield High School
• Patrick Hoffswell - Garfield High School
• Kaitlyn Jakubek - Roosevelt High School
• Alina Kido-Matzner - Ballard High School
• Ilan Nurick - Ingraham High School
• Joseph Smith - Ingraham High School
• Teal Stannard - Ingraham High School
These students, along with 282 other high school juniors from 119 different public, private and home-school organizations across Washington state, are taking part in the seventh year of the Washington Aerospace Scholars program. (Photo above shows the 2011-12 Washington Aerospace Scholars in front of the Shuttle Trainer Crew Compartment at the Museum of Flight in Seattle).
The WAS program is a free, competitive, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education program for Washington state high school juniors affiliated with NASA Johnson Space Center’s National High School Aerospace Scholars program and has partner programs in Texas, Virginia and Idaho.
Its primary goal is to excite and prepare students to pursue careers pathways in STEM fields using a distance learning curriculum developed in partnership with NASA and the University of Washington. Over the next five months, these Phase One students will complete online academic coursework in order to qualify for one of 160 Summer Residency session slots.
To qualify for the Summer Residency, students must satisfactorily complete ten online lessons, consisting of research essays, space-related math problems, and detailed graphics that illustrate their ideas. WAS participants also have the option to receive five University of Washington credits in Space and Space Travel (ESS 102) upon on their successful completion of the online WAS curriculum.
This course will satisfy the Natural World area of knowledge requirement for graduation from the University of Washington. Students who qualify for the Summer Residency will be hosted in either June or July for six-days at The Museum of Flight in Seattle.
During the Summer Residency they will be guided by professional engineers, scientists, university students and certified educators as they collaborate with other student participants to design of a human mission to Mars.
They will also take tours of engineering facilities and laboratories, complete team engineering challenges, and meet leaders in STEM fields. Washington Aerospace Scholars applications for the 2013-2014 program cycle will be available late summer 2013 at www.museumofflight.org/was.
WAS participants must be high school juniors, United States citizens and Washington State residents with a 3.0 minimum grade-point-average