Duncan High School’s after-school engineering club along with the Willcox STEM club partnered up to utilize STEM practices to compete in a NASA challenge. The NASA Design Challenge tasked participants with designing an International Space Settlement.

How did they do it?

In partnership with Duncan Unified Schools, the Town of Duncan and Greenlee County School Superintendents came together to complete this challenge. With funding from the AZ Rural Activation and Innovation Network (RAIN), they were able to cover the registration costs for the students to attend the challenge. Funding for programs like this from RAIN, provide opportunities to Graham and Greenlee County local youth so that no one is turned away from experiencing STEM due to financial limitations.

What was the outcome?

The team from Duncan High School won at the national NASA design challenge in August 2018. After the event, the team was inspired to form a Design Challenge Club and have now grown to over 40 participants. Most team members are 15-17 years old and half are females. The first event hosted 20 attendees with 84% noting that this was the first STEM event they had attended in the past year.

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The Arizona Rural Activation and Innovation Network (RAIN) is funded by the National Science Foundation to oversee grant funding for informal STEM education projects in four rural Arizona communities: Cochise County, Graham and Greenlee County, the Verde Valley, and the Navapache/White Mountains region. RAIN acts as a resource for best practices in informal STEM program development and works to highlight effective STEM programs, employers  and organizations across the state of Arizona. Interested in applying for a grant? Visit our website today and learn more about the opportunities in your community.