RCSP Engineers - The Next Generation


Mike Graves, Rocket City Space Pioneers Technical Lead, has passed his enthusiasm for space exploration on to his 12-year-old daughter, Laurie Graves.  Recently, when she was not playing soccer, she was spending her free time on her Science Fair project, a lunar lander experiment that examines the maximum angle at which a lunar lander could land on the moon without tipping over.  

Science Fair Awards Graves

So far, Laurie has received several awards for her work.  At the Alabama Science and Engineering Fair (ASEF) held April 1, 2011, Laurie won the overall Junior Grand Champion award.  She also received multiple awards from the Alabama Physics Society, NASA's first place crystal trophy, and Alabama modeling and simulation.  The North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair held on March 4, 2011, awarded Laurie first place for Earth and Space Science (EA) for grades 6-8.

Laurie enjoys working with tools and building things, and when her dad started working on space projects at Dynetics, it piqued her interest.  The more she learned from him, the more she wanted to learn.  She dedicated her free time to perfecting her project and plans on incorporating improvements to build a better model for next year’s science fair.


Laurie isn’t sure science/engineering will be her career path, but for a 12-year-old, she has made a pretty good start.


Visit the web sites below for more information on these Science and Engineering Fairs:
http://narsef.uah.edu/
http://nsstc.uah.edu/asef/

By Joyce Walters, Dynetics

 

Return from RCSP Engineers - The Next Generation to Space Science Education

Return Home