KSAT Students Score Big in Team America Competition

Four Krueger School of Applied Technology (KSAT) eighth-grade students recently participated in the National Team America Rocketry competition in Virginia. The KSAT students, Travis Lamb, Travis Humpreys, John Yadrick and Steven Ferguson, finished nineteenth in the nation and second among middle schools.

The competition is in its fifth year. About 7,000 students on 690 teams from 48 states and the District of Columbia took part in the qualifying rounds of competition. Like last year, the contest presents teams with a dual challenge. Students must launch the rocket as close as possible to an altitude of 850 feet and a flight time of 45 seconds. The raw egg payload must return to the ground unbroken. One hundred teams participated in the finals this year.

As a result of their placement, their teacher Russell Claughton and the team are invited to participate in NASA's Student Launch Initiative (SLI) at the Marshall Space Center in Alabama where they will build and launch a high powered rocket with the assistance of NASA engineers. This is the first time that an NEISD team has participated in the finals and NASA's SLI.

Pictured in the photograph below are students Travis Lamb, Steven Ferguson, John Yadrick and Travis Humphreys, and faculty Russell Claughton, KSAT teacher; Phyllis Hickey, principal; and Scott Rogers, director of Magnet Schools.