Local schools headed to DC for American Rocketry Challenge

May 16—Two Lawrence County High School seniors launched rockets into a cloudless sky in Moulton to prepare for the American Rocketry Challenge — a national competition for students hosted in Washington, D.C., this Saturday.

The students, Sam Cross and Patrick Graham, built rockets that measured 2 feet tall. Each rocket must carry an egg as its payload, reach an altitude around 850 feet and stay airborne for 42 to 45 seconds. It must separate into two parts that each parachute safely to the ground — without breaking the egg.

"The American Rocketry Challenge is an opportunity for students to apply STEM principles and compete against other students from schools all over the nation," said Tara Martin, the teacher sponsor for Lawrence County High School's team. "It's a golden opportunity for our students to network and meet more people in different industries."

Of the 100 U.S. teams that qualified for the nationals, nine are from Alabama. In addition to Lawrence County, teams from West Morgan High of Trinity, Bob Jones High of Madison, Hackleburg High, Haleyville City Schools, Tharptown High near Russellville, Winfield City High and two teams from St. John Paul II Catholic High School of Huntsville will compete.

Over 800 teams from across the country attempted qualifying flights, and this will be the first visit to the nationals for Lawrence County and West Morgan high schools.

"I'm just excited to see how well we do compared to other schools," said Cross. "It's a great way to get exposure and to get involved. Especially if you're on the fence about what you want to do with your career."

Including Cross and Graham, sophomore Spencer Duncan and Graham's cousin Blake, a junior, make up LCHS's team. Martin was inspired to put a team together at her school after attending last year's American Rocketry Challenge competition as a chaperone for her niece.

"I came back to school and was like, 'Why aren't we doing this?'" Martin said.

She successfully sought grant funding, and local businesses have also sent donations in support. The team started by designing their rocket in software called OpenRocket, where they tested different simulations by altering variables. They did the work after school and on weekends.

Creating the rocket included laser-cutting fins made of wood and epoxying the fins to a sturdy cardboard tube. The team built the motor from scratch, assembled delay charges, ejection rings and precisely packed the parachutes into the rocket's interior.

"It's kind of like you're launching a missile," Cross said. "You have to press both buttons at the same time and flip the switch."

The team tried their first launches in October and watched in horror as their work exploded in front of them when a motor short-circuited.

"The countdown is the scariest part because you don't know if it's going to go or blow," Patrick Graham, said. "It feels like it's in slow motion."

Guidance from a local mentor and winning Rocket Challenge alumnus, Andrew Heath, of Russellville, helped the Lawrence County team perfect their math and rocket designs. After gaining firsthand experience with rocketry, both Graham and Cross will attend the University of North Alabama to study computer science.

At West Morgan, senior Shanea Diaz and sophomore M.J. Walker signed up for the rocketry club due to their interests in engineering. The American Rocketry Challenge gave them hands-on learning opportunities, and Diaz will attend Lipscomb University to study mechanical engineering in the fall.

"The process was grueling," Walker said. "Working on the rocket and figuring out all the things that needed to go into it could be kind of confusing."

Five other students are on West Morgan's qualifying team: freshmen Jessica Cortes, Keira Hammonds and Callie Holloway, sophomore Miles Bowling and junior Alex Hale. A second West Morgan High and two West Morgan Middle teams failed to qualify for nationals.

"It's not as easy as you think," Cortes said. "When you experience it yourself, you get to admire all the effort that goes into building a rocket."

The team learned that design impacts performance when adding color to their project.

"You couldn't add too much spray paint because it would affect the mass," Hammonds said. "But it was still fun."

West Morgan Middle School placed in the top 40 last year. Ramona Cole, the high school teacher sponsor, wanted to create a team after traveling to nationals as a parent last year.

"I was like, 'I think we could do this too,'" Cole said. "And we can."

Alex Toll, teacher sponsor for the West Morgan Middle rocketry teams, saw a near perfect qualifying flight for West Morgan High.

"You don't necessarily know if you qualify when you send in your qualification flights," Toll said. "You can kind of have a general idea."

When West Morgan High's flight stayed in the air for the right amount of time and was only a foot shy of the goal altitude, they knew they had made it.

The team said that a special theory keeps West Morgan's rockets launching successfully and their eggs returning safely to the ground: They call it "egg naming theory."

"The one time we forgot to name the egg it cracked," Cortes said. "And its guts went everywhere."

— audrey.johnson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2437.