Contributed by
U.S. Department of Education
Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced the five finalists in CTE Mission: CubeSat, a national challenge to build technical skills for careers in space and beyond. Opelika High School is one of the finalists.
The Department issued the challenge to inspire students to learn skills for a range of careers and help high schools explore approaches that infuse more science, technology, engineering and math into career and technical education (CTE). From August to October, high schools across the country created mission proposals for CubeSat (cube satellite) projects. CTE teachers led teams from 22 states as they developed missions for studying topics important to their own communities and broader space exploration.
Project details:
- Opelika High School is collaborating with Columbus High School and Northside High School (Columbus, GA). The team plans to collect performance data for a new type of core material used in NASA-grade fluxgate magnetometers, which are used to study Earth’s changing magnetic field.
The other finalists are Anderson Clark Magnet High School (La Crescenta, California), Freeport High School (Freeport, New York), Mooresville High School (Mooresville, North Carolina) and Princeton High School (Princeton, New Jersey). Finalists will each receive $5,000 and in-kind prizes that they may use to build CubeSat prototypes in the second phase of the challenge. During Phase 2, which runs from January to May 2021, the finalists will have access to expert mentorship and additional virtual resources as they build CubeSat prototypes and plan flight events to launch their prototypes. The Department understands that due to current conditions, schools will need flexibility to safely collaborate when building and launching prototypes.
The challenge encourages interested students and teachers everywhere to start their own CubeSat projects by using the challenge resource hub. The hub offers access to curated educational resources, including virtual sessions with experts from academia, government, and industry.
To learn more about CTE Mission: CubeSat and meet the finalists, visit ctemissioncubesat.com.