Dodson High School students, Harlen Malone, Nathaniel Underwood, Noah Box, Garrett Jones, Kayleigh Frederick, Brooklyn Malone, Madelyn Cotton and Charlie Buckley were selected as winners of NASA’s Tech Rise Student Challenge.

This team of students, taught by Ms. Casey Thomas Tolar, was one of 60 winning teams chosen across the United States. In fact, they were the only school in the state of Louisiana that was chosen as finalists. NASA is now supporting the development and demonstration of the payload that was drawn out in their proposal submission, the Hephaestus Rocket Lander.

Dodson High School received a welcome kit, $1,500, weekly technical support from Future Engineers and earned a spot to test their completed project on a NASA sponsored flight. The team will be busy for the next few months completing the build that will be tested on a rocket-powered lander.