The Northern Oklahoma College Rocket Team is participating in the 13th Annual First Nations Launch (FNL) High-Power Rocket Competition as part of NASA’s Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium in Kansasville, Wisconsin, April 22-24.Dr. Frankie Wood-Black, Chair of the NOC Engineering, Physical Science and Process Technology Division and mentor for the team, indicated that NOC’s involvement stemmed from a request by the Team Leader Phillip Prairie Chief, a recipient of an AISES scholarship after he attended the annual AISES meeting last October, where he learned about the competition.“Phillip was so excited when he came back from the meeting and told me about the opportunity,” Dr. Wood-Black said. “He asked if this was something that NOC could do, and I said if he got a team together, yes!”“Within a few days, we had applied, pulled a team together and, with the help of the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC), found mentors that could help the team through the steps required to participate,” she added.NOC’s team is leaving for Wisconsin on Thursday, April 21, and will participate in workshops and other events culminating in a final presentation and an award ceremony during the weekend’s events.Team members include Phillip Prairie Chief, Team Leader, Kaylyn Marr, Nicole Simpson, Kaylyn Marr, Rachael Chatterji, Timothy Edwards, and Megan Pickering. The team has been supported by mentors from Tulsa Rocketry, Brien Wood and Hal Ellis.This competition is for students attending a Tribal College or University, a Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution (NASNTI), or who are members of an active American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) collegiate chapter. Teams compete to design build, and fly a highpowered rocket to be launched as part of the spring event in Kansasville, WI.There are three competitions, Mars, Moon and Gateway. Teams from around the country will be participating including teams in the Mars and Moon competitions from the University of Washington, the University of Hawaii, University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado, Boulder.NOC will be competing with Tribal Colleges in the Gateway competition.Dr. Wood-Black says that this has been a great experience for the students and is excited to see that students are getting to participate in an event that has a national reach.“This is what makes NOC such a great place,” she said. “Our students can come in an suggest an opportunity and we can run with it.”The WSGC Collegiate Rocket Competition is intended to supply teams of affiliated university ...
