Monday, May 06, 2013

These Junior Rocket Scientists Have Their Sights on Top-Flight Colleges - Higher Education

These Junior Rocket Scientists Have Their Sights on Top-Flight Colleges - Higher Education: When Jasmyn Logan and Nia’mani Robinson, age 14, met up to test launch their rockets in the middle of farm here the other day, their purpose was to prepare for the upcoming national Team America Rocketry Challenge.

But as members of “Team Rocket Power” — one of 100 teams that qualified for the national competition set for May 11 in The Plains, Va. — the girls were actually aiming for new heights in more ways than one.

Team Rocket Power is a rarity among rarities. Not only is the team one of nine all-girls teams to qualify for national finals of the Team America Rocketry Challenge, also known as TARC, but their team is also the only all-girls team that is African-American, according to the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, or NSBE.