Next Gen Engineers and Scientists Study a Next Gen Telescope
- By Maggie Masetti
- June 10, 2013
- Comments Off on Next Gen Engineers and Scientists Study a Next Gen Telescope
Another school year has come and gone – as has another RealWorld/InWorld (RWIW) Engineering Design Challenge, this year sponsored by the James Webb Space Telescope. I last wrote about this awesome student program in November – and since then we’ve had InWorld Q&A’s with James Webb Space Telescope project members, the presentation and evaluation of the six finalist teams’ projects – and had the winning team out to NASA Goddard to present their work and tour our facilities here.
The Six Finalists, Credit: NIA
RWIW is a terrific Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project, developed by teacher Sharon Bowers, that allows teams of middle and high school students to solve engineering problems rooted in real life. The Real World portion of RWIW takes place in the classroom – and at the end of that unit, students can elect to move into a virtual world much like Second Life. The cool thing about the InWorld portion of this project, is that the student teams don’t have to be geographically located in the same place. In fact, when the winning team came out to Goddard to present their project, it was actually the first time they’d presented it while all being in the same room together! One of the other finalist teams had members spread out all over the US as well as a team member in Germany!
In this year’s RWIW engineering design challenge, teams chose between coming up with new mirror or a new sunshield design for the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as an associated spin-off technology. The winning team chose to develop a sunshield design, and their spinoff was a starshield.
Here are some screenshots of their presentation:
Credit: NIA
Credit: NIA
Credit: NIA
The winning team, which consisted of high school juniors and seniors participating in the NASA INSPIRES program, included: Abigail Radford of Ashville, N.C.; Joshua Dijamco of Jackson, N.J.; Jonathan Hernandez of Elizabeth, N.J.; Katherine Denner of Horsham, Penn.; and Jim Gerard of Merritt Island, Fla.
On arrival at NASA Goddard, they started off their day meeting our Center Director, Chris Scolese:
Credit: Pat Izzo
Here they are pictured at the NASA Goddard Visitors Center with Nobel Laureate and James Webb Space Telescope project scientist, Dr. John Mather:
Credit: Maggie Masetti
Here they present their project to an audience including Dr. Mather:
Credit: Darryl Mitchell
Credit: Darryl Mitchell
In their own words:
“Before, I had a great interest in computer science, especially when I took an online course learning python. However, with the experience I had with RealWorld-InWorld, it changed my perspective of engineering and has considered me to take a career in engineering. The experience that I had in RealWorld-InWorld has had an impact on my interest. I never thought that engineering would be this fun and to do it without anybody in your team near you just makes it even bigger of a challenge. Engineering to me is that entire process from making a design to getting the prototype out and with RealWorld-InWorld, it has given me a taste of that. I really enjoyed it and has increased my knowledge of the exciting wonders of engineering and how unexpected it can be.” – Jonathan Hernandez, Year 3 winning team
“RWIW solidified my interest in engineering. It has also made me start to seriously consider aerospace engineering, which previously I just dismissed as rockets. It’s shown me how broad the field is, and how much goes into spacecraft design. I think I now have a much better idea of engineering than before, and much stronger conviction to become an engineer.” – Kate Denner, Year 3 winning team
The feedback from students who have been involved with RWIW really show what an impact this program has and how it is inspiring our next generation of engineers and scientists.
You can read more about RWIW in this NASA feature article. We definitely hope to participate in this project next year. If anyone else is interested, get ahold of us and we’ll put you in touch with Sharon Bowers! You can also sign-up at the official RWIW website.
