CLEVELAND—At the NASA Glenn 17th annual Young Astronaut Day Challenge on Nov. 7th, Birchwood School soared by winning a first place ribbon for the Balloon Propulsion Competition. They also had the fastest time for the Inspace Repair Challenge. In the Wind Power Challenge, they earned a third place ribbon for generating the most power from their turbine.
The day is filled with hands-on activities and competitions that are intended to stimulate an interest in aeronautics, space science and engineering. A total of 350 students from Greater Cleveland gathered at the challenge. The day’s events started with a talk given by NASA astronaut Sunita L. Williams, a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station (ISS). During the talk, Birchwood 5th grade student Vinny K was chosen to model the distance of the
ISS from the moon.
The students competed in a variety of engineering and scientific challenges. Birchwood’s Pilot (5-6th Grade) team was composed of Marco B, Katherine B, Alexis H, Vinny K, Darius Z (5th Grade) and Hajira A, Christine B, Clive C, Dhweeja D, Alex H, Jorgen K, Kavya R, Katelyn V, Naomi W (6th Grade). This is the team that won the first place ribbon for the Balloon Propulsion Competition, had the fastest time for the In-space Repair Challenge and earned a third place ribbon in the Wind Power Challenge.
The Commanders (7-8th Grade) team was made up of Nicholas J, Trevor L, Prithvi P, Sanjana and Susmita R, Hassan S, Brad S, Hannah Y (7th Grade), Nathan C, Deepak K, and Mohammed M (8th Grade). The Commanders earned a special ribbon in the Aerodynamic Protection Competition and also earned a ribbon for “most improvement” in the Aerodynamic Drag Challenge.
