The following email was sent to Elizabeth Kennick of Teachers in Space (www.tis.spacefrontier.org), a nonprofit organization that works to promote STEM activities/opportunities relevant to space industries for K-12 educators and students, by Jason LaFay of the DeWitt Creativity Group to help reserve a place for Brian Byars to attend the "Flight Experiments Workshop" in July of 2014. Brian Byars is planning to use the knowledge and contacts acquired from the workshop to begin a project whereby students of the DeWitt Research and Development Laboratory will design and build a CubeSat (homemade satellite):
Dear Elizabeth,
My name is Jason LaFay, and I teach at DeWitt High School in DeWitt, Michigan. I recently read about the awesome TJSat collaboration between Orbital Sciences Corporation and the Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. Several DeWitt High School teachers and myself are also interested in having students build an amateur satellite through the DeWitt High School Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL). The DRDL provides cutting edge STEM educational opportunities for DHS students. Past projects have included:
Making bio-fuels for green robots built by the DHS Robotics Club
Researching and designing alternative energy prototypes such as windmill turbines, hydroelectric power sources, and more efficient solar power cells
Designing and building a 3D printer
This is a link to a DeWitt High School Research and Development Laboratory video regarding the 3D printer project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LknVqn8aQyI
Additionally, we are also planning a crowd-funding initiative for the purchase of a space flight ticket. The overall goal is to put the first teenager/high school student into space via Virgin Galactic. Moreover, we will fund-raise money to send students to attend Space Camp. We would like very much to work with the Space Frontier Foundation on any joint efforts of mutual benefit. Opportunities to Skype with space industry professionals would also be greatly appreciated. Please let us know if this is something that the Space Frontier Foundation and/or yourself would be interested in learning more about.