SW New Mexico News

For the third year, New Mexico State University's Physical Science Laboratory (PSL), in collaboration with the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium and Teachers in Space, has continued its initiative to train teachers in space-related subjects through the Launch New Mexico to Space program.

“We are hoping to engage students to represent a future workforce that matches our state demographics. The only way to accomplish this is by being intentional about it and collaborating with people and organizations that work well together; as the adage goes, it really takes a village,” stated Paulo Oemig, director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium.

This summer, due to increased demand, two four-day professional learning workshops were conducted at the Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces. These sessions attracted 60 teachers from Title 1 schools across New Mexico and other states such as California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, and Tennessee. The focus was on educators from tribal, rural schools and underserved communities.

“Ultimately, the goal of these workshops is to get students, as early as possible, engaging in real space science projects,” said Noah Luogameno, project manager for Teachers in Space. “We want K-12 schoolteachers to be the gateway for students to become interested in STEAM pathways.”

Participants were trained on planning and executing high-altitude balloon missions. PSL facilitated two missions from their UAS Flight Test hangar at Las Cruces International Airport. During these missions, participants flew CubeSat experiments as payloads and analyzed data post-recovery.

“From my perspective, I find it quite rewarding to share experiences, promote cutting-edge research, and hopefully along the way transfer that knowledge to the next generation,” remarked Drew Denney, PSL's lead research and development engineer.

The workshops aim to inspire ongoing interest in high-altitude balloon missions among participants and their students. Markus Ford from Surry Elementary School noted that collaborative learning elevated their CubeSat projects beyond basic assembly.

“Teachers in Space continues to provide support throughout the upcoming school year," Luogameno mentioned. "Once they have met various engineering milestones... we will fly it on one of various flight platforms.”

Ford expressed enthusiasm about integrating CubeSat development into his teaching: “This kind of hands-on training is so important when it comes to inspiring the next generation.”

Paulo Oemig emphasized the importance of diversity: “Alignment between the educational system and industry in New Mexico is important... Diversity drives innovation.”

Video footage from a high-altitude balloon mission can be viewed at https://youtu.be/VSF-5B4O2ww.