EASTON NASA is looking for someone to create a design and create flag capable of flying on the moon and they are asking for help from students including some here at Oliver Ames High School.

Florence Gold of NASA visited OAHS last week to welcome the students into the High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH).

For the first time, OAHS students in the fashion design, construction and technology class will be designing and creating products and media students will be working on a video challenge for NASA.

Our mission is to inspire young people and give you an opportunity to work on a real world project for NASA, Gold said during her visit on Sept. 25.

The HUNCH program is a national project-based learning program where students participate in the design and fabrication of real products for NASA. HUNCH is currently in over 200 schools in 38 states. The only other HUNCH class in Massachusetts is in Franklin. OAHS is the only school in the state taking part in soft goods design.

You can put down on your resume or college application that you are NASA HUNCH contractors. Now you work for NASA, Gold told the students as she described how the district will be signing a Space Act agreement with NASA similar to companies like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Were very excited about bringing this program to Oliver Ames, family and consumer science teacher Betti Almeida said.

Almeida learned about the HUNCH program after her mother saw a television segment on "the women behind the scenes who have stitched vital spacecraft components."

I am always looking for ways to show my students in family and consumer science students how the skills we use can be applied to daily life with family and careers, she said. I found the NASA HUNCH webpage and was fascinated by the program and what it entails.

After submitting the proposal/request in December last year, OAHS was selected to be the first NASA HUNCH Softgoods program in Massachusetts. HUNCH founder Stacy Hale visited OAHS to see the facility and meet some of the students who had signed up for the future classes in fashion.

NASA HUNCH Softgoods Manager Marcy Dickson invited Almeida to attend the Softgoods training at the Johnson Space Center in Texas last June. Almeida met with teachers already involved with HUNCH whose students had designed items there.

There are soft goods all over the place. Soft goods is a huge part of space exploration, she said. Other educators there were so excited to see the things their students made.

The goods are used to hold and store equipment, create dividers on the Space Station, footwear and straps. In a video from the Space Station, astronaut Reid Weisman demonstrated how a crew organizer created by students was being used. The organizer was an item astronauts asked for. During a flight, the astronauts review the item and provide feedback to the students. Weisman was using the organizer, which hangs vertically in his bedroom which is the size of a phone book to store, pens, vitamins, lip balm and other items.

During her trip, Almeida assembled a bag designed by students for use on the International Space Station. OAHS students will have the chance to assemble more of the bags for use in space.

This opportunity prepared me to teach the use of industrial sewing machines, she said.

The school will receive four industrial machines paid for by NASA for the program use.

The OAHS students will be learning how to interpret and use cut lists and industrial prints. Topics will include tolerance tables, assembly processes, quality control, and overall NASA standards of construction.

The students are then challenged to design and make a flag which astronauts can leave on the moon surface. Other students in other schools in the engineering program will work on a flagpole.

In the HUNCH video media students learn about NASAs mission and create videos to share their knowledge. One award-winning past video from a school in New Jersey focused on the science accomplished on the International Space Station.

Real-world work that results in a tangible product is an excellent way for our students to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom, OAHS Principal Wes Paul said. This program will be a valuable way for students to get hands-on experience and introduce them to the many career paths that are available in the aerospace field.

Whether and when there will be a mission to the moon and Mars was the number one questions with students.

In 2024 were going to the moon. Thats our plan, Gold said. Were going to Mars as well. Thats why going to moon.

Gold explained that NASA plans to construct a lunar gateway, a small ship in orbit around the moon that will provide access to more of the lunar surface with living quarters for astronauts, a lab for science and research and ports for visiting spacecraft.

Thats also the way well go to Mars, she said.

She said space exploration needs support from all nations as well as industries.

We are planning to go to Mars. Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX) really wants to go and thats what it takes other nations and commercial industries.

We want this to be an international goal for every nation to benefit from - going out the moon and Mars. Its such a huge project we need everyone. We need that diversity.

For more information about HUNCH go to Nasahunch.com

Continue reading here:

OAHS students in Easton join the space program - Wicked Local