NASA will be launching a high-altitude balloon this summer.

When it does, a team of eighth-graders from the Warren Consolidated Schools Middle School Mathematics Science Technology Center (MS) 2TC will be cheering as they created one of the experiments on board.

The students from the center are known as Team World 50 and are one of 60 groups from across the country selected to be part of the NASA TechRise Student Challenge for the 2024-25 school year.

“I am so proud of my students and honored to be part of TechRise,” said Kristy DePolo, an earth science teacher at the school, in a news release.

It’s a challenging event that empowers teams of students in grades 6-12 to design and build an experiment that can be launched on a NASA-supported test flight. Winning teams are awarded $1,500 to build their experiment, a flight box in which to assemble it and an assigned spot on a NASA flight in which to test it. They are also provided with technical support from Future Engineers advisors to help the students learn skills in the process of turning their experiment idea into a reality.

The students’ experiment aims to investigate pollution in the air. This will be done by measuring the concentration of particles in the air and through collected data such as levels of ozone, methane and other gases in the atmosphere.

If all goes well the team will complete their experiment this week and mail the payload to the TechRise representatives.

“I am grateful for the help from Future Engineers,” said DePolo. “Without them I could not provide a learning experience like this for the students.”

For more information on the challenge visit futureengineers.org/nasatechrise.