February 28, 2025 • 14 mins
Our middle school engineers are going to space... sort of. Their project is, for sure. In May, an instrument the students are working on to study the atmosphere will be launched on a NASA weather balloon. We're only one of 60 schools nationwide -- and the only one in Wisconsin -- to earn the right to participate in the NASA TechRise Program, and our middle schoolers are hard at work soldering and programming their device ahead of the May launch.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the SMA Podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Bader. Today's episode is a little
(00:05):
different because we're on location in the middle school stem room. Let me set the scene
for you. It's after school on a Tuesday in one of the stem rooms. There are boxes of
stacked high on different tables. There are charts. There are work tables everywhere and
(00:27):
students are kind of filtering in. This is the first one of the first days of the NASA
Techrise program. And we're going to have students explain what that is. But I'm sitting
in the room and I asked for some volunteers and two students step up to tell me what's
going on here. They're their names are Fatima and Kaylin. Well, thank you guys for volunteering
(00:53):
to come on the podcast. What are we doing here? Fatima, what's the project we're working
on today? The project we're working on is about, it is a device that monitors VOC levels
in the atmosphere. VOCs are volatile organic compounds that are basically dangerous gases
(01:16):
that cause health problems like asthma, cancers, and even allergies. And how are middle schoolers
helping with that? What is this? So we're a group of kids coming together to build sensors
with also a camera and being able to, I guess, track these levels of like, I don't know what,
(01:41):
it's not toxins, we're doing temperature, humidity, methane levels, benzene, fluoride,
ozone, and we're going to monitor, I guess, those levels to see if that affects like health
issues. And we're going to launch it in Grant Park or what are we, how are we getting it?
So in, I think, what is it, May, we're sending it to NASA and the launches in, what's it,
(02:04):
California or Florida? California. Basically, it's this big circle filled with everyone's
boxes. There's 60 boxes and they send them up to space and they monitor all of them.
Yeah. Fatima, what brought you to volunteer in this, for this project? What brought me
to volunteer in this project is when I first came to the school and started STEM for the
(02:29):
first time, I actually had a really, like, I was really drawn to it, so I wanted to do
more and continue on with like, learning with like electric, like, engineering and I thought
this would be the perfect program, the perfect program to like pursue that. Awesome. Yeah,
(02:56):
how about you, what brought you to this program? Well, so when I first saw this, like when
we first came to STEM, it was like just a wire and a light bulb and a breadboard and
I was like, this is too complicated and as we got more in, I was like, wait, I really
understand this. I was like, I can, I enjoy this because I'm focused. This is like the
one class I can actually do work in. So when she put the sign up sheet, I was like, I'll
(03:20):
do it. Like if this is what we're doing, I'll sign up and do it, you know, just for the
fun of it. Have you guys always kind of been into science and technology or is this new
to you? No, no. This is our first year in this kind of stuff. Like, so this is my first
time ever trying anything with like science and STEM, all that. Are you guys great, good
(03:43):
with computers or with working with your hands or did you know? I've kind of always done
small things with technology. Like my dad works on my brother, my dad know everything
about computers. So I always had that and I was always looking into computers and stuff,
but not what I expected here. I never, I never knew I could because, because I never tried
(04:07):
this before. And this is like basically my first time ever doing anything with STEM.
After the students go back to their workstations, Ms. Mandiella passes the class to an assistant
who's a volunteer from outside to start working with the kids and unpacking the boxes. And
(04:27):
she takes a second to sit down with me. Here she is Isabella Mandiella. I started teaching
STEM programs in 2009. I was one of the first teachers introducing the STEM programs in
middle school and the idea was to teach them coding and engineering prototyping, also expose
(04:48):
our students to more real world application. So, so what grades, what grades do you teach
here? In here I'm teaching a sixth, seventh and eighth grade. Okay. You see each of them.
Yes. Okay. And the idea is to start with a foundation of electronics coding so they can
(05:09):
have this opportunity of participate in national contests like NASA Tech Rise. How did you,
yeah, tell me what NASA Tech Rise is. NASA Tech Rise is a national competition in which
students participate by working in teams, collaborating and designing projects that
(05:34):
can be useful for the community. In this case, our project is monitoring the atmosphere.
So they are designing and building a payload which different sensors for monitoring the
conditions of the atmosphere, air quality basically. And how, well, so you had to apply
(05:58):
to be in this. Can you tell us about that application process? What was it like? Yeah,
I applied in July and I invited some of the students to participate and they were very
interested. They didn't have a lot of experience but during our STEM classes we were exposed
(06:20):
to different sensors that they are going to use in the project, also coding. And yeah,
we started, we started designing the proposal and in January, well, they gave us the good
news that we won first place. Yeah, so the first I'd heard about it was the announcement
at the board meeting, the school board meeting. Congratulations. Can you tell us how competitive
(06:46):
it was? It was 720 entries and we were one of the 60 that won the national, Wisconsin
the only one. So we are representing the state in South Milwaukee. That is fantastic. I'm
so proud of us and we haven't even, they're just opening the boxes. So tell us about between
(07:14):
now and when will they be working on this project and where, I should point out that
we're talking after school, like students are working on this right now, not in class.
Yeah, we are working Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have our meeting, formal meeting with NASA
Thursdays. Tuesdays we use it for building and coding, redesigning the project if it's
(07:41):
needed, testing and of course checking the materials that we are using. Also, yeah, Thursdays
we receive the guidance of our mentors, the NASA mentors. So they, yeah, they explain
what they are looking for and they give us ideas for coding and engineering prototyping.
(08:03):
Wow. Tell me who are they at NASA? They are the group of engineers that actually are mentors,
are teachers and their job is actually guiding us for designing the code, designing the wiring
(08:24):
because sometimes we need to redesign our wiring and they help us. They help us to do
the test of every project, every sensor and they give us ideas as well and examples of
how they can use the methane sensor for example or the formaldehyde sensors. They help us
(08:51):
with all this information that we need for a project. So the two students around told
me that they signed up for this. How did you introduce this to them? I started actually
talking about the main project during our class. My STEM class was actually designed
(09:14):
for this type of national competitions explaining about why they are using those sensors and
those prototypes in my class for a specific purpose. Air quality, like NASA tech rise,
water quality, depending the use. But yeah, always with a purpose. My STEM class is, yeah,
(09:39):
if we are going to use a sensor, it has to be with a purpose. Air quality, water quality,
soil quality. Sure. Engineers, almost to a person, need a purpose, right? Absolutely.
That's the idea. They are putting science into effect, right? And that's what you're
doing. And what was their reaction when you told them that they were going to actually
(10:04):
build something that was going to be used for real? Yeah, they were really, it was,
that day I remember it was silence in the classroom. They were just in shock. They were
like, oh my gosh, and tears, excitement. Some of them were scared. They were like, what
(10:26):
are we going to do? I said, don't be afraid. Just enjoy because this one is what you have
been doing in the classroom. You are going to do what you know, and you're going to learn
more and you're going to speak about your project, which is fantastic. It's wonderful.
So what's a STEM teacher's role in this project then? And I see you have a volunteer here
(10:52):
helping you too. Yeah. We are two mentors and my job is helping them to have all the
materials they need, helping them with the coding, with engineering prototyping, checking
of course safety, the safety measures, and checking the engineering notebook, which is
(11:16):
very important. That is one of the things that NASA emphasize a lot. The engineering
journal, we follow a structure and that is actually what we do every day. In there we
write all our things that are working, things that are not working, the redesign, changes
(11:41):
that we are making in our project, has to be there. All has to be there. Okay. And what
are the benchmarks? When does this happen? When are you done? We are finishing in May.
In May I need to send the payload, built and tested to California, so where they are going
(12:08):
to launch this payload with the other 60. Yeah. How are they going to launch it? Is
it a rocket? Is it a what is it? It's a balloon. Okay. It's a balloon and yeah they are going
to use that balloon for launching the 60 payloads and they our payload has a camera that actually
(12:33):
is going to be taking video of our payload going to the atmosphere. How high up is it
going to go? 70,000. Oh my gosh. Yeah it's going to be a I mean like last year has to
be in the level of the stratosphere actually. So from there they're going to start monitoring
(12:58):
the conditions of these chemicals in the atmosphere. NASA Techrise the launching is going to be
in May and that one is via zoom. Oh I see. Every parent, the schools, everybody has a
link we'll get a link and then they can they can watch the launching in May. That is almost
(13:24):
the end of our episode for today but I wanted to leave it with kind of the impression of
what a real world project has on students. So I'm going to end our podcast today where
we started talking to Kaylin and Fatima one more time about the what this means to them
(13:48):
and what the stakes are for their project. I when I signed up I did not know that this
is how far we were going. I was like oh we're building something. She was like she didn't
I didn't know what we were even doing. All I knew is we were building something and then
I found it's for NASA and it's like oh we're sending it to NASA. We have to do all this.
It's like oh not what I was expecting. We're one in 60 schools. There was I think over
(14:12):
700 entries and we're the only school in Wisconsin that won. Yeah we're the ones representing
this whole state of Wisconsin so it's kind of a pressure. I want to wish good luck to
our entire Tech Rise team and to the middle school and to Ms. Mendiola and I want to say
thank you to them for being on the podcast. Thank you to you too for listening. This is
(14:36):
the end of my podcast and we will see you next time.
Welcome to the SMA Podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Bader. Today's episode is a little
(00:05):
different because we're on location in the middle school stem room. Let me set the scene
for you. It's after school on a Tuesday in one of the stem rooms. There are boxes of
stacked high on different tables. There are charts. There are work tables everywhere and
(00:27):
students are kind of filtering in. This is the first one of the first days of the NASA
Techrise program. And we're going to have students explain what that is. But I'm sitting
in the room and I asked for some volunteers and two students step up to tell me what's
going on here. They're their names are Fatima and Kaylin. Well, thank you guys for volunteering
(00:53):
to come on the podcast. What are we doing here? Fatima, what's the project we're working
on today? The project we're working on is about, it is a device that monitors VOC levels
in the atmosphere. VOCs are volatile organic compounds that are basically dangerous gases
(01:16):
that cause health problems like asthma, cancers, and even allergies. And how are middle schoolers
helping with that? What is this? So we're a group of kids coming together to build sensors
with also a camera and being able to, I guess, track these levels of like, I don't know what,
(01:41):
it's not toxins, we're doing temperature, humidity, methane levels, benzene, fluoride,
ozone, and we're going to monitor, I guess, those levels to see if that affects like health
issues. And we're going to launch it in Grant Park or what are we, how are we getting it?
So in, I think, what is it, May, we're sending it to NASA and the launches in, what's it,
(02:04):
California or Florida? California. Basically, it's this big circle filled with everyone's
boxes. There's 60 boxes and they send them up to space and they monitor all of them.
Yeah. Fatima, what brought you to volunteer in this, for this project? What brought me
to volunteer in this project is when I first came to the school and started STEM for the
(02:29):
first time, I actually had a really, like, I was really drawn to it, so I wanted to do
more and continue on with like, learning with like electric, like, engineering and I thought
this would be the perfect program, the perfect program to like pursue that. Awesome. Yeah,
(02:56):
how about you, what brought you to this program? Well, so when I first saw this, like when
we first came to STEM, it was like just a wire and a light bulb and a breadboard and
I was like, this is too complicated and as we got more in, I was like, wait, I really
understand this. I was like, I can, I enjoy this because I'm focused. This is like the
one class I can actually do work in. So when she put the sign up sheet, I was like, I'll
(03:20):
do it. Like if this is what we're doing, I'll sign up and do it, you know, just for the
fun of it. Have you guys always kind of been into science and technology or is this new
to you? No, no. This is our first year in this kind of stuff. Like, so this is my first
time ever trying anything with like science and STEM, all that. Are you guys great, good
(03:43):
with computers or with working with your hands or did you know? I've kind of always done
small things with technology. Like my dad works on my brother, my dad know everything
about computers. So I always had that and I was always looking into computers and stuff,
but not what I expected here. I never, I never knew I could because, because I never tried
(04:07):
this before. And this is like basically my first time ever doing anything with STEM.
After the students go back to their workstations, Ms. Mandiella passes the class to an assistant
who's a volunteer from outside to start working with the kids and unpacking the boxes. And
(04:27):
she takes a second to sit down with me. Here she is Isabella Mandiella. I started teaching
STEM programs in 2009. I was one of the first teachers introducing the STEM programs in
middle school and the idea was to teach them coding and engineering prototyping, also expose
(04:48):
our students to more real world application. So, so what grades, what grades do you teach
here? In here I'm teaching a sixth, seventh and eighth grade. Okay. You see each of them.
Yes. Okay. And the idea is to start with a foundation of electronics coding so they can
(05:09):
have this opportunity of participate in national contests like NASA Tech Rise. How did you,
yeah, tell me what NASA Tech Rise is. NASA Tech Rise is a national competition in which
students participate by working in teams, collaborating and designing projects that
(05:34):
can be useful for the community. In this case, our project is monitoring the atmosphere.
So they are designing and building a payload which different sensors for monitoring the
conditions of the atmosphere, air quality basically. And how, well, so you had to apply
(05:58):
to be in this. Can you tell us about that application process? What was it like? Yeah,
I applied in July and I invited some of the students to participate and they were very
interested. They didn't have a lot of experience but during our STEM classes we were exposed
(06:20):
to different sensors that they are going to use in the project, also coding. And yeah,
we started, we started designing the proposal and in January, well, they gave us the good
news that we won first place. Yeah, so the first I'd heard about it was the announcement
at the board meeting, the school board meeting. Congratulations. Can you tell us how competitive
(06:46):
it was? It was 720 entries and we were one of the 60 that won the national, Wisconsin
the only one. So we are representing the state in South Milwaukee. That is fantastic. I'm
so proud of us and we haven't even, they're just opening the boxes. So tell us about between
(07:14):
now and when will they be working on this project and where, I should point out that
we're talking after school, like students are working on this right now, not in class.
Yeah, we are working Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have our meeting, formal meeting with NASA
Thursdays. Tuesdays we use it for building and coding, redesigning the project if it's
(07:41):
needed, testing and of course checking the materials that we are using. Also, yeah, Thursdays
we receive the guidance of our mentors, the NASA mentors. So they, yeah, they explain
what they are looking for and they give us ideas for coding and engineering prototyping.
(08:03):
Wow. Tell me who are they at NASA? They are the group of engineers that actually are mentors,
are teachers and their job is actually guiding us for designing the code, designing the wiring
(08:24):
because sometimes we need to redesign our wiring and they help us. They help us to do
the test of every project, every sensor and they give us ideas as well and examples of
how they can use the methane sensor for example or the formaldehyde sensors. They help us
(08:51):
with all this information that we need for a project. So the two students around told
me that they signed up for this. How did you introduce this to them? I started actually
talking about the main project during our class. My STEM class was actually designed
(09:14):
for this type of national competitions explaining about why they are using those sensors and
those prototypes in my class for a specific purpose. Air quality, like NASA tech rise,
water quality, depending the use. But yeah, always with a purpose. My STEM class is, yeah,
(09:39):
if we are going to use a sensor, it has to be with a purpose. Air quality, water quality,
soil quality. Sure. Engineers, almost to a person, need a purpose, right? Absolutely.
That's the idea. They are putting science into effect, right? And that's what you're
doing. And what was their reaction when you told them that they were going to actually
(10:04):
build something that was going to be used for real? Yeah, they were really, it was,
that day I remember it was silence in the classroom. They were just in shock. They were
like, oh my gosh, and tears, excitement. Some of them were scared. They were like, what
(10:26):
are we going to do? I said, don't be afraid. Just enjoy because this one is what you have
been doing in the classroom. You are going to do what you know, and you're going to learn
more and you're going to speak about your project, which is fantastic. It's wonderful.
So what's a STEM teacher's role in this project then? And I see you have a volunteer here
(10:52):
helping you too. Yeah. We are two mentors and my job is helping them to have all the
materials they need, helping them with the coding, with engineering prototyping, checking
of course safety, the safety measures, and checking the engineering notebook, which is
(11:16):
very important. That is one of the things that NASA emphasize a lot. The engineering
journal, we follow a structure and that is actually what we do every day. In there we
write all our things that are working, things that are not working, the redesign, changes
(11:41):
that we are making in our project, has to be there. All has to be there. Okay. And what
are the benchmarks? When does this happen? When are you done? We are finishing in May.
In May I need to send the payload, built and tested to California, so where they are going
(12:08):
to launch this payload with the other 60. Yeah. How are they going to launch it? Is
it a rocket? Is it a what is it? It's a balloon. Okay. It's a balloon and yeah they are going
to use that balloon for launching the 60 payloads and they our payload has a camera that actually
(12:33):
is going to be taking video of our payload going to the atmosphere. How high up is it
going to go? 70,000. Oh my gosh. Yeah it's going to be a I mean like last year has to
be in the level of the stratosphere actually. So from there they're going to start monitoring
(12:58):
the conditions of these chemicals in the atmosphere. NASA Techrise the launching is going to be
in May and that one is via zoom. Oh I see. Every parent, the schools, everybody has a
link we'll get a link and then they can they can watch the launching in May. That is almost
(13:24):
the end of our episode for today but I wanted to leave it with kind of the impression of
what a real world project has on students. So I'm going to end our podcast today where
we started talking to Kaylin and Fatima one more time about the what this means to them
(13:48):
and what the stakes are for their project. I when I signed up I did not know that this
is how far we were going. I was like oh we're building something. She was like she didn't
I didn't know what we were even doing. All I knew is we were building something and then
I found it's for NASA and it's like oh we're sending it to NASA. We have to do all this.
It's like oh not what I was expecting. We're one in 60 schools. There was I think over
(14:12):
700 entries and we're the only school in Wisconsin that won. Yeah we're the ones representing
this whole state of Wisconsin so it's kind of a pressure. I want to wish good luck to
our entire Tech Rise team and to the middle school and to Ms. Mendiola and I want to say
thank you to them for being on the podcast. Thank you to you too for listening. This is
(14:36):
the end of my podcast and we will see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.