Carnage Middle teacher presents at international conference
Sept. 24, 2003 - Holly Hanrahan thought receiving the Kenan Fellowship in 2002 was the pinnacle of her teaching career. That was before meeting Kenan mentor Dr. Fred R. DeJarnette. The Kenan Fellows Program promotes teacher leadership, addresses teacher retention and advances K-12 science, technology and mathematics education. Kenan Fellows are public school teachers selected through a competitive process to participate in a prestigious two-year fellowship…all while remaining active in the classroom.
NASA asked Dr. DeJarnette, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at NC State, to take on the Tumbleweed as a senior design project for his aerospace students. Dr. DeJarnette took this opportunity to pair university students with Hanrahan's classes to complete the project. The Tumbleweed Project required designing a wind-driven sensor device that took atmospheric and soil measurement on Mars with the goal of discovering life on the planet and sending data back to Earth.
To develop the project, 100 sixth-grade students at Fred J. Carnage Middle School collaborated with NASA and NCSU to create prototypes of possible development for unmanned space launches to Mars. Students ran several trials during the semester-long project, putting their tumbleweeds through what might be normal paces in atmospheric conditions simulating the surface of Mars. Students did in-depth research on the planet, principles of design and worked collaboratively on design teams to select the best materials and shapes for such a device.
The Tumbleweed Project was a successful collaboration between university and middle school. Dr. DeJarnette submittted the findings of the Tumbleweed project to the international conference in Portugal. Hanrahan and Dr. DeJarnette submitted two abstracts to the International Workshop on Planetary Probe Atmospheric Entry and Descent Trajectory Analysis and Science. Both abstracts were accepted and a paper and poster will be presented at the workshop in Lisbon, Portugal, Oct. 9. You can read more about the conference at http://www.sstep.org/entryws/
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