A team of six students from Adel DeSoto Minburn Middle School are one of 60 winners of NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge, and the only winners from Iowa.
“It’s kind of a testament to their motivation to learn more,” Jon Markus, a science teacher at ADM Middle School, said about the students who won.
Now in its third year, TechRise calls on middle and high school students from across the country to submit experiment ideas for either a high-altitude balloon or rocket-powered lander test flight.
Announced on Tuesday, Jan. 23, the ADM students’ experiment, “Volatile Organic Compound and Ozone Detection,” was one of 30 experiments that were recognized as high-altitude balloon winners.
According to the TechRise website, the challenge offers the opportunity to get hands-on insight into the design and flight test process. The goal is to inspire a deeper understanding of space exploration, Earth observation, coding, electronics, and the value of test data in students.
“NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge is one of the many exciting ways we’re engaging with the Artemis Generation,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a news release. “The process of designing flight experiment proposals encourages students to think big and realize that their talents and creativity will be key in the future of humanity’s exploration.”