High schoolers at Ben Barber Innovation Academy create parts to be used by NASA
MANSFIELD (CBSNewsTexas.com) – In-between band practice and gym class, a group of high school students are hard at work manufacturing parts that will actually be used in space.
These students are using their new training to launch exciting careers in engineering.
It's Monday morning at Ben Barber Innovation Academy in Mansfield.
A group of high school students are hard at work using highly technical machines to fabricate parts in this manufacturing class.
But this isn't your ordinary school project – they're working on parts that will be used by NASA.
"We're building a component to a storage locker box and a storage locker box is a part that they use to send supplies up to the astronauts at the space station," said Timothy Sherwood, the teacher leading the NASA HUNCH program at Ben Barber Innovation Academy.
These students are part of the NASA HUNCH program, in place in 277 schools nationwide, 20 of which are in North Texas. The program gives high school students hands on learning to expose them to careers in science technology math and engineering.
"We tell them you guys aren't just a bunch of high school students that are working on a project you're working for NASA you're on the NASA team," said George Kessler, NASA HUNCH's director of projects and program execution.
As NASA's newest team members these students traveled to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to hand deliver the parts they built. The pieces they craft here will be put into use on the international space station within the next year.
"It changes your perspective," said Justin Colby Miller, a junior. "From 'oh this is just a grade what if I fail' to 'wow, this is going out to the space station and it's going to help astronauts store their materials and their experiments.' This is a little bigger than an A plus in a class."
Students are trained and mentored by NASA employees and the parts they make are inspected and held to NASA's rigorous standards.
"These are not widgets and these are not paperweights, these are actual structural components that are flying to the space station," said Kessler.
Students are told when a part they've worked on is included in a NASA launch and they'll even get a photo of it in use in space.
"Just knowing that we're making a difference even if it's something as small as a lid for a locker," said senior Henry Jonason.
Students say the NASA HUNCH program has opened their horizons and helped them discover new career paths they never would have considered.
"I feel really ready for what's going to come after high school," said Abigail Gibson. "I'm getting firsthand experience of what I'm going to do for the rest of my life."
To find out more information about the NASA HUNCH program, click here.