Over 200 students from Northeast Ohio and Pittsburgh will compete in the 24th annual Young Astronaut Day at NASA’s Glenn Research Center on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Media are invited to attend.
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. and NASA astronaut Michael T. Good will present the keynote address to kick off the day’s activities. Good is a Broadview Heights native and Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School graduate.
Young Astronaut Day is a science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, outreach event for students in first through 12th grade. Students from Avon Lake, Akron, Bay Village, Brecksville, Brookpark, Brunswick, Cleveland, Columbia Station, Maple Heights, Middleburg Heights, North Olmsted, Rocky River, Solon and Sullivan, Ohio, as well as Pittsburgh, will compete on teams in hands-on aerospace activities.
The competition begins at 12:15 p.m. and ends at 2:15 p.m.
The seventh through 12th graders will compete on a Virtual Rocket Challenge, Space Elevator Challenge and Gaining Traction on Mars Challenge. First through sixth-graders will compete on a Parachute Drop Challenge, Spudnaut Challenge and Pneumatic Rocket Challenge. Each aerospace-themed activity encourages teamwork and the discovery that math, science and engineering can be fun.
“It’s very exciting to be able to provide students with the opportunity to work on activities that are based on real engineering problems we are faced with at NASA Glenn,” said Ashlie Flegel, an aerospace engineer at Glenn. “This year’s activities explore NASA Glenn’s past, present and future in honor of our 75th Anniversary. Each activity is tied to a facility or particular project Glenn engineers are working on.”
During the event, students will be mentored by NASA and Canstruction architects, engineers and contractors to design and build a giant replica of NASA’s Centaur Rocket made entirely from full cans of food. At the close of the event, the food is donated to the Cleveland Food Bank.
Young Astronaut Day sponsors include NASA Glenn’s Exploration Systems Project Office, the Northern Ohio Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sierra Lobo Inc., Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., and the Gilcrest Electric and Supply Company.
Volunteers for the event are from NASA Glenn, Canstruction, Cleveland State University, Vantage Partners LLC, Herschman Architects, Alycon Inc., DB Consulting Group Inc. and Case Western Reserve Robotics Team.
Media interested in covering the event should email jeannette.p.owens@nasa.gov or call 216-433-2990 by 4 p.m. on Nov. 4 to be cleared through security.
For more information about Young Astronaut Day, visit:
To see a list of participating schools, visit:
http://aiaanos.org/yad/registration
For more information about Mike Good, visit:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/good-mt.html
To learn more about NASA Glenn, visit:
