Let's get back up to speed. A team of high school students from Kickapoo High School in Springfield, MO conducted lunar research as part of the High School Lunar Research Projects program. The team blew away the competition and was invited to attend the 2011 NASA Lunar Science Forum at the NASA Ames Research Center. They, of course, accepted the invite.

It was a busy three days for the team at the Lunar Science Forum. After arriving Monday afternoon, they had the opportunity to meet with a few scientists at the forum's opening reception. Tuesday morning they attended the forum's opening ceremony and heard a presentation on the continued importance of lunar exploration by Dr. Clive Neal of the University of Notre Dame. They were then able to see the always popular Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera presentation by LROC PI Dr. Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. The team then shuffled off to a two-hour tour of NASA Ames. After lunch, the students got to see the Ames Vertical Gun Range which is used to conduct impact cratering experiments. A rather apropo visit considering the team's research. Following the visit to the AVGR, the students recorded a podcast with Nancy Atkinson for the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast series. You can listen to the team's podcast here.

Tuesday evening the team had their first chance to present their research to the forum attendees. To sum it up, their research was very well received. How well received? The students poster was entered into the forum's student poster competition. Kickapoo was going head-to-head with research posters from other high school, as well as undergrad and grad students, over 30 in all. After returning from a day of fun in San Francisco on Wednesday, I was informed that after the first round of judging, the Kickapoo team's poster was in the top five! Where exactly in the top five was hard to say. That was to be determined from a second round of judging. The winners would be announced at the end of forum late Thursday morning. How did the Kickapoo team fare in the contest? Tune in next week for the final installment in my "These Students Rock!" blogs.

by: Andy S.

Tuesday Aug-23-2011