Walton Intermediate Students Selected as Winners of NASA’s TechRise Challenge

• Thursday, January 26, 2023

A team of eleven students from Walton Intermediate School participated in the NASA TechRise Student Challenge, a project that invites students from across the nation to join forces with NASA in its mission to advance space exploration.  Walton Intermediate School was one of 60 winning teams, and the only intermediate school in California selected to build and launch their proposed experiment. 

Students were tasked with developing an experiment to be tested on the NASA-sponsored commercial high-altitude balloon which will have more than four hours of flight time at 70,000 feet. With support and instruction from their Advanced Physical Science teacher Chris Borado, Walton students developed a “Mineral Dust Investigation” to measure the ratio of lighter /clay particles to darker/metallic particles as well as the temperature of the particles to further understand the effects of dust particles in the stratosphere and troposphere and their impact on the environment and global warning.

“We are so proud of these students for their hours of dedication to scientific discovery that led them to this wonderful accomplishment,” said Board of Education Trustee Lan Nguyen.  “This is an amazing learning opportunity that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”

The Walton team will receive $1,500 to build their device as well as technical support from Future Engineers advisors who will support students in building their proposed device. They also earned a spot on the NASA high-altitude balloon flight which is scheduled to launch this summer.

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