Redmond High School senior Lucas Wimmer, Christopher Hansen, Tamar Feldman and Emmaline Davis have selected to participate in the Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) program this summer.
The four, who will be entering their senior year in high school, will be participating in one of the four WAS Summer Residency sessions held this summer at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
WAS is an educational program for high school juniors in Washington and Wimmer, Hansen, Feldman and Davis are among 160 students in the summer program selected from 290 applicants.
To qualify for the residency program, the students spent six months studying a NASA-designed, distance-learning curriculum online. They were selected to attend the summer residency based on their academic performance on the these lessons.
During the residency, they will collaborate with other student participants on the design of a human mission to Mars. WAS scholars are guided by professional engineers, scientists, university students and certified educators as they plan these missions. The WAS program is designed to inspire students to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) but the students are divided into teams which also require them to learn about mission management, budgets, the legal aspects of space exploration and medicine.
Additionally, Wimmer, Hansen, Feldman and Davis will participate in a number of hands-on engineering challenges including design, construction and deployment of robotic rovers, model rockets, lander devices and payload lofting systems. They will also receive briefings from experts in the fields of engineering, science, physics, medicine, project management, risk management and space exploration such as Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar, NAE, retired NASA astronaut.
During their residency, Wimmer, Hansen, Feldman and Davis will also visit Everett for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Boeing Commercial Airplane assembly plant (including the new 787), tour Aerojet’s Redmond facilities and the engineering laboratories at the University of Washington. As a graduate of WAS, they will join more than 700 program alumni, representing 170 different Washington high schools.
Wimmer, Hansen and Feldman attend Inglemoor High School in Bothell and Davis attends Holy Names Academy in Seattle.
All room and board are provided for students free of charge by the WAS Foundation. The program has been supported by Gov. Chris Gregoire, the Apex Foundation, the Aldarra Foundation, the Boeing Company, Microsoft Corp., Battelle, the Washington Space Grant Consortium, GenCorp and individual donors. The Museum of Flight hosts both the program administration and the summer residency sessions. Additional partners include NASA Johnson Space Center for curriculum development, the Washington State Governor’s Office and Washington State Legislators.
WAS will be accepting applications for students and teachers in early September for the 2011-2012 program cycle. Visit www.museumofflight.org was to download an application. WAS participants must be high school juniors, U.S. citizens and Washington residents. Teachers must be currently practicing Washington State certified educators, and must also be U.S. Citizens. The deadline for applications is November 4.
For more information, please contact Washington Aerospace Scholars at (206) 764-5866 or email waaerospacescholars@museumofflight.org.
