Cumberland County students to watch science projects launch into space

Three school STEM science projects in Cumberland County are headed to the International Space Station.

On Tuesday night, winners of the STARward STEM design challenge were announced after student teams from ten schools competed to have their experiments launched into space aboard the International Space Station.

Over 300 students joined the challenge, representing 63 teams in grades K-12.

"Having the opportunity to be in the academy is really great because I'm exposed to alot of new experiences, and I get to learn a lot," said Maya Sanchez.

As part of having their projects selected, these three winning teams will travel to Kennedy Space Center in the fall to observe the rocket launch when their experiments take flight.

The winners:

• The 1st place team for the Secondary School Category, is the 11th & 12th grade team with the experiment “The Impact of Perchlorates on Aerospace Metal T-73 in Microgravity” from Ms. Renfro’s class at Douglas Byrd High School.
• The 1st place team for the Elementary School Category, is the 2nd grade “Sage” team from Ms. Hildel-Reyes’ class at Cumberland Road Elementary School.
• The 1st place team for the overall At-Large Category, is the 4th grade “Tumeric in Space” team from Ms. Braddy and Ms. Pinheiro’s class at Mary McArthur Elementary School.

One of the program's highlights on Tuesday night as a speech from retired NASA astronaut, Toni Antonelli, who is also a 1985 graduate of Douglas Byrd High School.

"Three student teams are going to get picked tonight and their science experiments will be flown to the International Space Station and their experiments will be conducted in outer space," Antonelli said on Tuesday.

"[Antonelli] graduated from our school, because an astronaut, he went to MIT I believe. That's amazing also," said young scientist Jakari West.

The students who created the Turmeric in Space project at Mary McArthur Elementary School are deaf or hard of hearing. Pinheiro said there are many reasons her students love STEM projects.

"They are really very hands-on. They're very visual learners so getting in there and being able to manipulate things helps them better understand," said Pinheiro.