Texas Tech University
Breaking Through Barriers
Supersonic Rocket Propels Students into Engineering Fields
Here�s a conundrum to addle the brain of any educator: Set a technological target that can be reached by high school students -- yet is juicy enough to lure them into engineering fields.
Lubbock Estacado High School teachers Greg Burnham and Lyn Bryant took on the challenge and have found an answer: Break a record by breaking the sound barrier.
Students in Estacado�s Engineering Magnet Program recently became the first high school kids in the nation to break the sound barrier using a solid propellant motor. The feat is the result of a partnership between the magnet program and Texas Tech�s Center for Engineering Outreach.
�We were looking for a real goal that we could reach,� says Burnham, an engineering teacher at the high school. �You run into a lot of students who don�t see the value of math and science, so we wanted to do a project that uses a lot of math and science. This is really a big step. This will motivate them.�
Math and science educators have long struggled to keep their students from yawning through class. Prodding those students into fields like engineering is an even more momentous task, and one that the United States may direly need a solution for.
The hook of speed and space flight is one answer. For high school students like Mikel Gatcia, the program is a natural lure. Gatcia said he has always been drawn to math and science.
�To be able to put the two of them together was perfect for me,� says the Estacado High School student.
Gatcia was among the group of students who launched the 10-foot-tall Matador 1, named after Estacado�s mascot and emblazoned with Texas Tech�s �Double T.� The rocket flew as high as 17,000 feet and reached a velocity of 960 miles per hour, according to the students� preliminary calculations.
This break-through comes at a time when many U.S. engineering educators fear they are not attracting enough students � especially females and minorities � to meet future needs.
"There's a shortage of engineers in this country," says John Chandler, director for Texas Tech's Center for Engineering Outreach. "Enrollments are declining, not just at Tech. We have to import expertise, and that's a dangerous situation."
The project�s curriculum was developed as part of the Pre-College Engineering/Architecture Academy, a partnership between the Center for Engineering Outreach and Estacado High School. Burnham and Bryant developed the curriculum as a way to spark interest in math and science. Both teachers learned the physics and design of rocketry in summer workshops offered by the Center for Engineering Outreach.