In 2012 two students from the Boonville Space Program submitted their hypotheses and data to the Mendocino County Science Fair.  Taking First Place in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Division, the two earned a spot to compete at the California State Science Fair in Los Angeles.

 

The CSSF was held at the California Science Center, where almost one thousand of the top science students in California gathered for the exposition.  The team participated in two days of exhibits, interviews and presentations.  The competition was tremendous and the team did not take home a prize, but the experience was life-changing. Instructor Jacob Bagnell was honored with the California State Science Fair Teacher of The Year award for 2012, beating out hundreds of other science teachers from across California.

 

 After the Science Fair and a trip to Knotts Berry Farm (for roller coaster physics research, of course) the team headed back to Boonville and continued prepping for Mission 3.

 

The following year, the team was certain they could place again.  Now with four balloon launches under their belt, the submitted an even more impressive project to the County Science Fair, and again won a spot to go to State.

 

This next trip to Los Angeles was particularly exciting because the California Science Center was now home to the newly retired Space Shuttle Endeavor.  The team was anxious to get a chance to see the Shuttle, but was not prepared for a huge surprise.  The Boonville Space Program was given a display spot directly under the starboard wing of the Endeavor!  

 

It was a huge honor to display our spacecraft beneath one of the most famous spacecraft of all time.  The team once again did not place against the stiff competition at the Science Fair, but again went away having had an amazing experience.

 

On the way home, the team stopped off at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena.  The group got a private tour from Mars Science Laboratory Scientist, Julia Stalder, who took the team for a special up-close visit to the Mars Curisity Rover's identical twin- the rover that stays on Earth for research and testing.  An identical working rover to Curiosity, the job of this rover is for scientists to model conditions and perform tasks here on Earth that are then sent to Curiosity on Mars.

 

The team is looking forward to competing in the science fairs again in 2014!