Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) was among the 60 winning teams chosen by NASA for the second TechRise Student Challenge, a nationwide contest designed to engage students in technology, science, and space exploration. These teams will work together to build science and technology experiments in preparation for a suborbital flight test. A full list of winning teams is available on the TechRise website. 

“Through opportunities like the TechRise Student Challenge, young people are deepening their passion in science and technology, preparing to be the future innovators and pioneers who help humanity soar to new heights and unlock more secrets of the universe,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Each team will receive $1,500 to build their experiments and an assigned spot to test it on one of two NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon flights scheduled for this summer. Winning teams will design, build, and prepare their payloads for flight, receiving close mentorship and support along the way. The team from TJHSST is made up of students from the Chemical Analysis Lab and Astronomy lab who worked together on their proposal. 

Led by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and administered by Future Engineers, TechRise offers students both hands-on experience with the payload build and flight test process, as well as the chance to contribute to NASA’s mission of exploring space and studying our planet. The challenge is designed to inspire a deeper understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, surface features, and climate, as well as space exploration, coding, electronics, and the value of test data.

Read the full NASA press release.