High school students work with NASA scientists to send experiment into stratosphere

    LAKELAND, Florida (WFTS) -- This week, the past, present, and future of aviation will be recognized at SUN ‘N FUN. As for the future, there’s a group of high school students in Lakeland who are leading the way.

Out of 720 schools nationwide, Central Florida Aerospace Academy was the only one in the state to be chosen to participate in the Future Engineers' NASA TechRise Challenge.

“We are one of 60 teams that were selected to create an experiment that will be sent on a weather balloon up into the stratosphere where we are going to collect data and analyze the results afterward,” said junior Camille Foreman.

The goal for these students is to create a 3D-printed material that will survive high levels of radiation.

“3D printing is going to be the future, we are not going to be needing people to get all dirty and greasy building parts and everything, I can spend an hour on a computer and make something that works perfectly fine,” said senior Mason Cessna.

“This will really help a lot of the aviation industry as we see which materials are the most efficient and which ones we should stray away from using,” said senior Olivia Patton.

Throughout the process, the students are corresponding with NASA mentors who are offering feedback and advice.

“It definitely gave me a lot of hands-on experience to really understand and see the process come to life in that way and it’s been a great opportunity and it’s very exciting,” said Patton.

The students say this kind of project could lay the groundwork for an aviation career.

“It’s really great, it’s allowing people to really see that the younger generation is going to come up and start designing things and become the new focus, especially as we are going out into space more,” said Foreman.

This summer, all 60 schools will anxiously watch as the weather balloon, with their respective experiments, is sent up into the stratosphere.