By Risa Askerooth
[email protected]
Senior April-Joy McCann took one small flight to Texas, one giant leap for women in science when she flew to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center at NASA for the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) High School Aerospace Program (WISH). From July 6 to 12, McCann competed in a team to design a Mars rover as one of 90 girls selected nationally.
“Being girls, people don’t generally see you as an engineer or scientist,” said McCann, “So I think I learned more just to keep pursuing and keep going and keep trying. I think one thing (NASA Flight Director) Gene Kranz said is, ‘Failure is not an option.’ You’ve just got to keep going.”
WISH is a program that encourages junior girls in high school to pursue STEM fields. When the participants arrived in Texas, they were broken into four teams named after the Mars rovers Sojourner, Spirit, Curiosity and Opportunity. They constructed a rover and radiation shield designed to retrieve rocks and water samples from a simulated Mars surface while protecting against radiation, all on a budget of $500 million. “Some of the teams built the rover and went way over budget and then they realized, ‘Okay, we can’t do that,’ and they had to redesign. It really helped (them) think within reason and how to spend (their) money wisely,” said NASA Education Specialist and Program Director Maria Chambers.
In addition to the rover competition, the girls completed a Prezi presentation about their rover and an egg drop, in which they created a Mars lander to protect an egg from a three-story fall. After submitting their radiation shield designs to a preliminary review panel of judges, the four teams had 10 minutes to discuss their Prezi presentation. “We even had a broadcast on NASA TV and we were presenting in this whole big room of important people,” stated McCann. The winning team was decided by tallying the scores of the rover competition, egg drop and presentation. Although McCann’s team, Curiosity, placed last, the 90 girls that competed will have their names flown on the 2014 test flight of Orion, the spaceship that will hopefully land on Mars soon.
Prior to the trip to NASA, McCann completed an online eight-module course from January to May along with 315 other girls. Every two weeks, an essay, a math problem and sometimes a graphic was due. It focused on the history of space exploration and progressed through time, ending with the future of space travel. “I told her being with online classes, you know, you’ve got to be disciplined,” said Jessie McCann, mother of April-Joy McCann, “She loved it. She gets a little behind and she really (catches) up.”
The hard work that was put into the course paid off when April-Joy McCann learned she would be travelling to NASA, all expenses covered. “I didn’t think I was actually going to get selected just because it was so competitive,” stated April-Joy McCann, “Then I got an email saying, ‘Congratulations, you were selected.’ I screamed. I literally did. I was so excited.” Jessie McCann said, “I was proud of her because I know how she works on that on top of her other school work and her other extracurricular activities.”
Through WISH, April-Joy McCann was able to meet girls with similar interests, and even had roommates from New York and West Virginia. “Talking to them was a little bit easier and it’s nice to hear and understand that there are other girls just as motivated as you are to become something more,” expressed April-Joy McCann.
April-Joy McCann plans to pursue an engineering career. She is considering interning at NASA while in college to get a feel for where she would like to work in the future.
