HHCA's 8th-grade Physical Science students recently participated in a nationwide competition for 6th-12th grade students hosted by NASA. The annual TechRise Challenge, part of NASA's renowned Flight Opportunities Program, invited students to design an experiment and test a high-altitude balloon. Students across the country formed teams to design experiments that met the challenge criteria, aiming to secure a spot on an upcoming NASA-sponsored flight. 

Judges reviewed 720 submissions from across the United States and selected just 60 winning entries, including one team from HHCA.

HHCA’s winning experiment, "Surfin' the Sound Waves," will fly to the edge of space along to measure how sound waves travel through the atmosphere at different altitudes and air pressures. The NASA balloon, carrying HHCA's experiment and 59 others, will ascend to 70,000-95,000 feet and stay aloft for 4-8 hours. While it explores Earth's atmosphere, it will also provide breathtaking views of our planet.

Student entries were judged based on several criteria, including: 

• Impact of the experiment on the team’s education
• Connection to NASA's mission to explore the unknown in air and space
• Alignment with the team's hypothesis
• Design guidelines met throughout the experiment 

Participating in NASA’s TechRise challenge gave our 8th-grade students a valuable opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge to a real-world experiment. I am so excited to walk alongside our winning team as they build and launch their experiment!

- Michelle Judd, HHCA 8th Grade Physical Science Mentor and Certified Project Lead The Way Instructor

HHCA 8th graders on the winning team include Keyli Andrade, Stone Burd, Georgia Chapman, Amanda Drury, Jeremiah Frazier, Pierce Hudgens, Eleanor Mitton, Ryan Strebe, and Tucker Zietz.

The team worked on their experiment proposal for several weeks, and answered numerous questions, including, "How does your investigation help to explore space and/or study our home planet?" and "How is your experiment connected to one or more of the central parts of NASA's mission?" Students also determined what components would be needed for the experiment and how the necessary components would fit inside the 4x4x8 TechRise Challenge flight box. 

We are immensely proud of our 8th-grade students for being named a 2025 NASA TechRise Challenge winner. This achievement reflects their creativity, collaboration, and dedication to innovative thinking, all of which align with our mission to inspire young minds to glorify God through excellence in learning. Their success demonstrates how faith and curiosity can work together to explore the vastness of God’s creation. Congratulations as well to Science Mentor Michelle Judd for her leadership throughout this project. Her passion for seeing students delight in their work is evident, and we are grateful for her commitment to helping them achieve this extraordinary honor.

- Doug Langhals, HHCA Head of School

Each winning team will receive a prize package to support the construction of their experiment, including:

• $1,500 to build their experiment
• A flight box in which to build it
• An assigned spot to test their experiment on a NASA-sponsored flight
• Technical support during the experiment build phase from Future Engineers' advisors, who will help students learn the skills they need to turn their experiment idea into reality.

HHCA students will build their experiment this spring with the support of Mrs. Judd and their assigned NASA engineer, with the flight scheduled for Summer 2025.

view all TechRise winners here

read Nasa's full story about the program here