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Fairmont STEM Teams Selected To Fifth Straight National Rocketry Competition

Three STEM school teams in Fairmont have been selected to attend the nationwide American Rocketry Challenge for the fifth time in as many seasons.

Updated on Friday, April 28, 2023 at 5:17 p.m.

Three STEM teams in Fairmont have been selected to attend the nationwide American Rocketry Challenge for the fifth time in as many seasons.

Two teams from East Fairmont Middle School, alongside East Fairmont STEM, a group of high school students, are among the 100 teams selected. The teams will build and launch model rockets that carry an egg to an altitude of 850 feet and return safely as part of the competition. At its peak, the designed rocket will section off into two parts – one with the egg, and one with the rocket’s motor – and both parts must land safely with their own parachutes.

“At the competition the night before, they’ll flip a coin,” middle school team member Carson Grace said. “And that determines the height that the rockets have to go, so we have to have two different rockets ready in case for whatever height they are for whatever height they have to go.”

East Fairmont Middle School science teacher and team sponsor Barbara Pill said there’s a selection process to join the school’s STEM club – meaning it’s consistently full of dedicated students.

“They’re all goal oriented,” Pill said. “Of course, anytime you have teams, there’s not going to always be agreement on everything. But they work through and we use simulation software and make our rockets in the simulator meet the parameters that we want before we ever start building the actual rockets.”

Pill said staying calm under stress and having a clear vision of each team member’s role is what will earn them a high ranking.

“These are middle school kids, most of these students there will be high school age,” Pill said. “And these are some of our younger students. And it’s a lot of pressure.”

But for some students, the competition will be a return to one they’ve attended in years prior, and it’s a chance for some of them to build on previous showings.

“This year, I think we’re hoping to not get disqualified for the egg, we built our rocket a little differently so it’s more aerodynamic this year,” team captain Maddy Armentrout said. “I’ve always enjoyed hands-on learning. But this has been my favorite so far, because I enjoy engineering.”

If one of the teams wins out, they would earn a $100,000 cash prize and a spot in the International Rocketry Challenge in Paris this summer.

The top 25 teams will also be invited to a student workshop sponsored by NASA.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify the school affiliation of the teams attending. East Fairmont STEM is a team of high schoolers not officially affiliated with East Fairmont High School.

Fairmont STEM Teams Qualify For Nationwide Rocketry Contest

Two teams from East Fairmont Middle School are sending students to the final round of a nationwide rocketry competition.

The students will be competing to win The American Rocketry Challenge and a $100,000 cash prize next month. They will be among 101 teams from 27 states and are the only two qualifiers from West Virginia. A third team, nearby rocketry club East Fairmont STEM, also earned a spot as an alternate.

To qualify, the teams designed a model rocket that kept two raw eggs safe as it launched over 800 feet in the air. Barring when the event was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, the school has had students attend each year for the past five years.

Science teacher and team sponsor Barbara Pill says they have stayed successful because of the tools and software they are able to use.

“We use simulation software to tell us how the rocket is going to fly before we ever cut tubes to build it,” Pill said. “The students design it, I have them sketch out what they would like and go over the sketches, give them suggestions about, ‘Well, this may work, this may not work.’”

Members of the STEM clubs at East Fairmont Middle School that qualified for the American Rocketry Challenge.

The significance of being selected for the event is not lost on the students. Many of them, including seventh-grader and club member LJ Diaz, are excited to meet other students from across the nation with the same interests.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to nationals. And being with the STEM club is really fun,” Diaz said. “You get to see all these people that are probably smarter than me do the same thing.”

Pill’s students will be participating at an event May 14 in The Plains, Virginia to decide the top 25 teams. Those teams will be invited to submit a proposal to compete in the NASA Student Launch initiative.

North Central W.Va. Students to Enter National Rocket Competition

West Virginia’s got a rich history of young people involved in the science fields, many using rocket science to fulfill their dreams. A group of students from North Central West Virginia is hoping a rocket will also launch them to the very top.

There are five students in North Central West Virginia who are building a rocket to launch in the Team America Rocketry Challenge competition.

This competition entails sending a rocket 825 feet into the air, which will hold two raw eggs inside of it. The rocket must come down within a certain time period, almost 50 seconds, and the eggs can’t break. Simple right? Well, actually, no.

But a very special machine is helping these students. It’s a three dimensional printer housed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s facility in Fairmont.

“I like the 3-D Printer a lot, I think it’s really cool. I think it’s really cool that he invited us to play around with it at any time, that’s really amazing,” said Luc Peret, one of the students on the team.

NASA’s Todd Ensign helps students across the state enter these types of events.

“I personally believe that competitions like this provide a gateway for students to delve so much deeper than they could during their school studies. They don’t have the opportunity to use the kind of software and tools that we have here, but they really dig deep,” he said.

These students come from different backgrounds. Jack Thompson for instance, wants to be a ballet dancer. He’s only 16 and is receiving offers from different places for his services.

“If you’re a teenager and you don’t think you are ever going to use math or science in your life, it’s crazy how reality can kick you back into gear and realize everyone uses it at some point in their life,” said Thompson.

The team must launch its rocket before the end of the month, and if its scores are strong, it can qualify for the national competition. That takes place in May in Virginia.