Students in the High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) program at Fairport High School (FHS) completed a mid-year review of their projects on February 27. The process determines which projects will be selected to attend the final review at Johnson Space Center in Houston this upcoming spring.
During the Critical Design Review, students showed the prototype designs of their projects to NASA representatives who spoke with students and evaluated their work. After consideration of projects from schools throughout the country, the top designs of each project will be chosen to travel to Houston, TX in mid-April to present their work to more NASA scientists and engineers. The ultimate goal is to have their project selected by NASA for future production and use aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and/or future space missions.
FHS Chemistry Teacher/NASA HUNCH Advisor Donna Himmelberg said FHS is proud to have hosted the review for another year. This year, students from Genesee Valley Educational Partnership (GVEP) May Center (Mt. Morris) and GVEP Batavia, who also participate in the HUNCH program, traveled to Fairport to have their students’ projects reviewed. This presented a wonderful opportunity for peer introductions, collaboration and collegiality.
Fairport students’ projects this year includes work on food packaging, spare tools pouch, radiation protection jacket, collapsible sleeping quarters, augmented reality object identification and automatic location stowage tool.
“We are proud of the progress our students have shown from September to now in developing their prototypes and we look forward to finding out in a couple of weeks which projects are chosen to travel to Houston for further development,” said FHS Chemistry Teacher/NASA HUNCH Advisor Donna Himmelberg. “The HUNCH program provides a unique interdisciplinary collaborative process for students to pursue their passion with NASA and we are grateful to have this opportunity.”
For more information on the HUNCH program, visit: www.nasahunch.com.
