THE N
ORTH STAR
Volume II, No. 4 --- Fall, 1997
Last July, eight girls from St. Paul Central High School participated in the U of M Summer Research Camp for High School Women sponsored by the Commission on Women and the Minnesota Medical Foundation. Wenda Carlyle, camp coordinator, arranged for U of M faculty mentors and hands-on experiences to encourage young women to pursue careers in math and science.
Facilitated by Randi Quanbeck, MnSGC Program Coordinator, and Pam Peterson, Education Director of STARBASE Minnesota, the girls spent a very hot and humid July afternoon building a rocket in the laboratory space of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics. The rocket kit was purchased by STARBASE and comes with video-taped assembly instructions.
After about four hours of intense labor and epoxy training, the girls emerged with a beautiful rocket that they spray-painted purple. The experience was exhilirating and they are anticipating the launch when the Tripoli site at Northbranch can be secured. Good job ladies!
Charmagne Campbell-Patton, of St. Paul
Central High, working with a piece of the rocket.
Based on Ann Weiseth 7/25/97; Photo by John Lovretta
Courtesy of the Minnesota Daily
A Friday morning in Bemidji in May saw 56 Solway Elementary School 4th & 5th graders launching model rockets. Teachers Rob Beyer and Michelle Dahlby were assisted by about 20 Bemidji State University students for this event. Krista Boergerhoff, a sophomore elementary education major, coordinated the weekís building activities. "It was so much fun I couldn't believe it, and it is great to know we boosted their knowledge about NASA and the space program. There's one little boy who wants to be an astronaut, and he thinks this is the greatest thing thatís ever happened to him!" Solway Elementary has been launching rockets for many years, but this year's budget posed a threat to the program. Dr. John Annexstad of BSU saw the event as an outreach opportunity and purchased the rockets.
Upward Bound (a college prep program) collaborated with the Academic Programs for Excellence in Engineering & Science (APEXES) on a two-week program for high school students this August. This is the first year of the program, and Sam Moore of APEXES felt it was a hit with the students, and maybe even expand for next year.
Dr. Hosotani, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, guided the students for an hour each morning. In the next hour, the students moved to SGI workstations for computer graphing, such as fractals. Visits to Computer Science and Engineering labs gave the students a taste of opportunities in those professions.
After lunch, attention turned to the "Great Beyond," with Outpost. This simulation game of constructing space colonies proves a real challenge to their planning, math and engineering skills, as well as a look ahead to issues that may arise in their lifetime! Special thanks to APEXES's Sam Moore and Yolonda LaMar for assisting with the students. MnSGC sponsored student scholarships for this program.
by Joseph Meuller
If you gave me one word to describe my experience last summer at Dryden, it would be a toss up between "incredible" and "super-duper-awesome." It was truly the most valuable opportunity I have yet had in my 21 years. As one of the seven academy participants, I had fun all the time, enjoyed my work, and learned constantly.
Dryden, located at Edwards Airforce Base in the dry heat of the Mojave Desert of Central California, is home to astronauts and test-pilots Gordon Fullerton and Bill Dana, as well as to Marta Bohn-Meyer, the national aerobatics champion and the only woman to ever fly the SR-71 Blackbird. It is also the site where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. Working at Dryden was both a learning experience and a history lesson each and every day.
My job at Dryden was to work with Dr. Joseph W. Pahle on Validating Linear Models of the F-18 HARV. The HARV stands for High Angle Research Vehicle and is a test vehicle for examining flight control effects associated with thrust vectoring. Creating a linear model from a non-linear system was challenging work. My specific task was to apply linear models that were modeled at conditions other than the actual flight conditions.
The Academy was not all work! Our Dean, Dr. Dominick Andrasani of Purdue University, kept us in touch with the larger world of aeronautics. We spent five days in Washington D.C. where we met and stayed with the Goddard Academy. We had a tour of their NASA Center and a seminar/Q&A session with Bob Whitehead, Wilbur Trafton, Spence Armstrong, and Dan Goldin himself. On another trip, we met Peter Diamandis (CEO of X-Prize Foundation) who said he would love for us to take the X-Prize design project idea back to our respective schools. I would LOVE to do this and show everybody how good our aerospace program is at the U of M!
The NASA Academy gave me the gift of discovery and excitement in my field. I hope that it will continue to provide others with the same opportunity to learn and grow as it has provided me.
Alvin Aus and Mark Noordmans, two students from Bemidji State, spent last summer as interns at NASA research centers. Both are graphic design/industrial technology majors, and proved themselves to be top-of-the-line! In fact, Mark Noordmans was named the outstanding intern of the year for his astronaut toolbelt design.
Alvin Aus improved the welding certification process for the welding staff, contributed to the dispute resolution process for NASA's contractors, and developed a new inventory process for NASA's catalogue system. "'The rewards of the internship were tremendous. The experience is invaluable', Aus said. 'When it comes time to graduate, that internship is going to be a gold mine.'"
-- Based on THE PIONEER, 5/9/97
The NASA Lunar and Planetary Science conference was once again held this past March, with seven Bemidji students present. These BSU attendees were the only undergrads, out of over 1,000 people. The 28th annual conference met to debate the existance of Martian life. Each of four main conference rooms hosted more than 20 presentations daily, given by the world's top scientists and grad students. This conference is the ultimate global space science information event.
Alvin Aus, one of the BSU students present, reported, "Even being undergraduates we were treated with dignity and respect.... We showed them that the public -- even though we didn't represent the public per se -- is interested in what they do."
Brandy Toft, another BSU student, said, "There was so much coming at us that we couldn't digest it all."
John Annexstad, a professor of space studies at BSU, attended the conference with the students. He was honored at the conference for his previous work with NASA, on the curation system for stored meteorites. When asked his view of Martian life, he replied that more research was needed. The students, however, say anything goes.
-- Based on Devlyn Brooks, 3/28/97
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