THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504150099
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, staff writer
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Matthew Neil has never flown in an airplane, but he can tell you what it takes to make one fly.
For the last four months Matthew, 14, and five other Hunt-Mapp Middle School students have devoted their after-school hours to learning all they can about aerodynamics, meteorology and aircraft design as part of a national 4-H project, CAST (Cooperative Application of Science and Technology.)
The project, also sponsored by the National Science Teachers Association, matches a middle school team with a science or technical laboratory site to conduct hands-on research together. Hunt-Mapp was matched with NASA Langley.
The Hunt Mapp youngsters, teamed with two NASA reseachers, have analyzed and predicted weather and built a wind tunnel to test model planes, prototype designs of an ultralight aircraft they hope to build this summer.
Chosen from 200 candidates at Hunt-Mapp, the six youngsters are guided by NASA's Peter Thomas, a pilot and education specialist, and Catherine Watson, a meterologist and pilot. Linda Ridenourand Becky Hinton, teachers at Hunt-Mapp, serve as the project facilitators.
Nationally 50 other teams of middle-schoolers are working on a variety of science and technology projects that they, along with Matthew's team, will present at the national 4-H council headquarters in Washington late this month.
The Hunt-Mapp team has gotten a practical lesson in communications by going on line and exchanging information via computer with other CAST teams across the country.
Aerospace is a prevailing theme at Hunt-Mapp with celestial murals in the hallways and aerospace themes incorporated into the magnet program instruction. With his interest already piqued, Matthew was eager to join the CAST project. ``We learn something new everyday,'' he said, adding that he hopes for a career as a jet pilot or with NASA.
As the team leader, Matthew coordinates the team's efforts and will present the final oral report in Washington, D.C.
Erin Nowak, 13, is the team's official weather forecaster, keeping a daily weather journal and preparing a weekly weather briefing.
``I would like to go into government or business but this opens you up to a bunch of careers in science and math that I did not really know about before,'' Erin said.
Shawn Rocheford, 13, is well-versed in computers, his favorite hobby, and will design the team's ultimate ultralight aircraft on a computer. His design will then go to Craig Nixon, 12, who is the ultralight engineer in charge of building a small scale model of the ultralight to be tested in the team's wind tunnel.
The wind tunnel, constructed from a NASA supplied kit, was put together by the team tunnel engineer, Edinburgh ``J.R.'' Williams IV, 13, and the project report editor, Shavonda Jones, also 13.
``My hat is off to them because it takes a fair amount of ingenuity to build the tunnel,'' Thomas said.
For Shavonda the challenge of building the wind tunnel was the most exciting part of the project.
``I want to be an engineer and I like to design and build things,'' she said.
With the knowledge and skills they have gained in the CAST project, the team hopes to build a large model or full size ultralight or rework a used ultralight to their design.
``We saw a used ultralight advertised for sale , but we were just a day late in calling,'' J.R. said.
The team's final, and perhaps biggest, challenge will be to convince Thomas to test pilot the plane for them. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RIDHARD L. DUNSTON
Erin Nowak, 13, built a rubber band-powered propeller plane to be
tested in the wind tunnel.
by CNB