Jovial screams and cheers filled the school bus as Science Content Coach Belinda Guzman read the announcement that her 5th grade team, Infinity Spartans, placed first in the Rover Observation And Drone Survey (ROADS) Nationals level 5-8 grade Dawn Division.
“I am in shocked,” Infinity Spartans sponsor Belinda Guzman said. “We are thrilled that we can offer these amazing STEM learning experiences for our young students.”
As per the ROADS website, ROADS provides a “framework that lets students explore STEM concepts through hands-on activities.” Taking inspirational, real life NASA projects, ROADS reconstructs lessons and competitions and challenges students to think outside the box.
For 13 Vanguard Rembrandt Secondary 5th grade students participating in the challenge, this year was no exception.
“I was excited because we worked really hard,” Infinity Spartan team member, Alexa Flores, said. “I plan to major in Marine Biology and this project taught me to work as a team and think outside the box.”
Teammate Jose Jimenez also agreed.
“I felt surprised and proud that we were ranked at the top of our division,” Jimenez said. “This mission taught me a lot about coding and mechanical engineering, which are two subjects I would like to study.”
Aside from putting together a team during the COVID-19 pandemic, ROADS on Asteroid challenged students and sponsors to create a crater formation, search for signs of life, create a mission patch, and participate in a virtual ROADS on Asteroids final challenge.
“Aside from collaborating and learning about space, students also learned about previous NASA missions. This mission is designed after Dawn, a retired space probe that was launched by NASA,” Guzman said. “This mission served as a base for us to produce our porotype.”