Local STEM Event

GILBERT EVENT

FOR STUDENTS GRADES 8-12

DATE:  March 3 - 4, 2018

TIME:  8 am - 6 pm

LOCATION:  Mesquite High School

EVENT SPONSOR:  Orbital ATK

Go For Launch! is a 2-day program (10 hours each day) that uses Space Exploration as a platform to launch student involvement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), STEAM (Art), teamwork, communication and leadership. This program is created and presented by Higher Orbits, a non-profit, and was developed to reach high school-aged students.

Students are immersed in the wonder of Human Spaceflight through a variety of talks delivered by experts in the fields of space & STEM: such speakers have included an astronaut, former International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Flight Controllers, Astronaut Instructors, scientists, and engineers. Students get insight and feedback from experienced space and STEM professionals whose goals are to illustrate the numerous possibilities that exist in the world of STEM. A unique facet of Go For Launch! is that the students will work with an astronaut for during their time at the event.

Broken into teams, students will work together for the entire event. Nearly every talk features collaborative activity, before or after, where team members must work together to complete tasks for daily awards. These tasks are designed to build leadership and teamwork skills, as well as enhance team communication. The culminating exercise is a design project. Each team must define and design a space experiment. At the conclusion of each program, the teams will present their ideas to a panel of judges from the Space & STEM fields, who will then choose a winner from each Go For Launch! event. Depending on funding, the experiment will either launch, or it will be in competition with a handful of other projects from the same division and the division winner will have their experiment launched to the International Space Station.

One winning team will be selected from each individual Go For Launch! event. Winners within each division will compete for the division title and the winners of each division will have their experiments launched to space!

In September 2017 a team from Mesquite High School won the national competition and in November 2017 their experiment was launched into space to be studied at the International Space Station.  

• Visit the Go for Launch! website to learn more about this unique opportunity for students grades 8-12.
• Visit the Gilbert Go for Launch! event site to learn more about the local event and registration.  Registration is now open.