(Left to right): Julie Olson (SCHS/Mitchell Senior High), Tom Durkin (SD Space Grant), and Patty Martin (Aberdeen Roncalli High School)

• Julie Olson of Second Chance High School (SCHS) and Mitchell Senior High won a $4,649 grant for her project focusing on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drone technology.  The project allows for the creation of an elective course on UAV Technology with units on engineering, design, airframes, flight, electronics, motors, payloads, safety, and a “learn-to-fly” mini-course. Drones will be used for specific high school/middle school-level environmental projects as well as outreach to elementary students, reaching a total of about 300 students per year (100 HS/MS and 200 elementary.) The goals of the project are based on the SD science standards and focus on the engineering aspects of analyzing a major global challenge to evaluate solutions that account for societal needs, as well as for cost, safety, reliability, and environmental impacts. The project also focuses on physical science by designing and building a device that works within constraints to convert one form of energy into another.
• Patty Martin of Aberdeen Roncalli High School won a $1,145 grant for her project focusing on atmospheric science in cooperation with the “Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment” (GLOBE) Program, an international STEM education program sponsored by NASA, NOAA, NSF, and the U.S. State Department. Patty’s project will annually reach about 110 Roncalli middle and high school students. In addition to collecting and analyzing scientific data themselves, the students enter it into the GLOBE database and collaboratively interact with other schools around the world at similar latitudes and longitudes, as well as with National Weather Service professionals working with GLOBE. Aberdeen Catholic School System is in the process of becoming a STEM certified school.