NASA HUNCH Works with Dade Schools to Track Impact on Students’ Careers

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

The December 11th Dade County Board of Education meeting welcomed two representatives from the national NASA HUNCH team to Dade. The meeting also noted numerous recent student accomplishments and the purchase of three new buses.

Superintendent Josh Ingle and Dade County High School Principal Brent Cooper recognized Emma Hartline, Emma Vandagriff, and Savannah Wolfe for their participation in Youth Assembly. See the December 6th issue of the Sentinel for the complete story about Youth Assembly and the bill these students worked on.

Additionally, Ingle and Cooper recognized two seniors (Ryuu Scott and PJ Cravey) who participated in Inspire! Weekend and the students who placed at the Beta State convention. (See the December 12th issue of the Sentinel for the full Beta story).

Regarding the Beta students’ success, Cooper said, “Academically, I’d put our students up against anybody.” He also noted the dedicated teachers, Phil Bell and Carrie Morris, who served as drivers for the Beta trip after the original transportation plan fell through.

Then, Stacy Hale and Bob Zeek from NASA HUNCH spoke about surveys they are hoping to complete in Dade schools. Hale is the HUNCH founder and project manager, and Zeek is the project resource manager and co-founder.

Hale shared background about the program, saying, “I created this thing called HUNCH and co-founded it with Bob Zeek 21 years ago…This is a unique thing that’s taking place at this school district. Y’all are teaming with NASA HUNCH to create a new program in the HUNCH program.”

HUNCH stands for “High school students United with Nasa to Create Hardware,” and Hale said they give real-world problems to students to solve. “Those are projects that we’re looking for answers for ourselves, so [the students are] truly part of the NASA team.”

Hale voiced appreciation for the teachers who go above and beyond to bring NASA HUNCH to their students because it requires extra work to have the program.

He explained that he wants to ensure that people who want to go into a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) don’t avoid the career because they think they can’t do it. He recognized that STEM is not a fit for everyone, but that sometimes people who enjoy STEM think that they aren’t capable of such a career. To address this, HUNCH exposes kids to STEM projects so that their interest and confidence in these subjects can grow from a young age.

The technology and math programs are Hardware Fabrication, Soft-goods Fabrication, Flight Configuration, Video Competition (which helps spread the word about NASA), and Culinary Competition. The science and engineering programs are Design and Prototype, Biomedical and Health Care, and Software. Also, HUNCH Academy is a new branch of the program that includes third through fifth grade with the goal of adding lower grades in the future.

Hale asked the board, “What would it mean to y’all if eight to ten years from now you are able to boast, ‘Dade County graduates more students going into STEM than any other public school district in the USA?’”

He explained that in order to track the success of NASA HUNCH and the impact it has on students’ future careers, the program wants to complete surveys. Hale requested that Dade County Schools work with NASA HUNCH to develop and carry out these surveys.

Hale reported that women make up only about ten percent of people who work in STEM. Zeek recognized Brittany Koger who leads HUNCH at Dade Elementary School and said, “Our goal is to monitor that group of students all the way through and see what happens.” Koger said that many of her students who are excited about NASA HUNCH and STEM are girls.

The program started in Dade six years ago, so the students who participated that first year when they were in middle school are now seniors at DCHS. Three of these seniors attended the meeting, two of whom plan to pursue mechanical engineering and one who plans to pursue architecture after graduation.

After the HUNCH discussion, the board approved the school fundraiser requests which had been sent to them ahead of the meeting as well as the school calendar for 2024-2025. The first day of school will be August 9th, 2024, and the last day will be May 21st, 2025. Ingle explained that because this calendar only has 175 students days (five days short of the required 180 days), there will be additional minutes at the end of the days to make up the time.

The board reported that three new school buses which were ordered a year ago have arrived, so the school system is surplusing three old buses. Daniel Case (District 1 representative) asked John Smith (director of facilities/transportation) if the oldest buses are surplused or if the most problematic buses are surplused. Smith explained that a combination of both factors go into surplusing buses.

Smith further explained that while the school system has 20 established bus routes, we are short on bus drivers, so the 20 routes have been condensed down to 17. He reported that we have 27 buses in order to have back-ups and buses available for school trips and sporting events.

The personnel report is as follows:

• Resignations: Jordan Biddle
• Hire Aftercare Worker: Abby Guffey
• Hire DCHS Paraprofessional: Amanda Steele
• SNP Substitutes: Summer Wallin, Chayna Turner