Evanston Middle School eighth-grade science class wins NASA competition

It was an exciting day for eighth-grade science teacher Ashley Graham when she announced to her fifth hour class that they had won an award. Her class won the NASA TechRise Student Challenge which aims to advance space exploration and enhance knowledge of Earth.

Graham said, “NASA does a contest in conjunction with Future Engineers every year where they do things that are getting to a better understanding of our world or continuing on with space exploration.” Topics to choose from this year ranged from understanding pollution to growing plastics in the atmosphere. Her students had to pick a project and create their experiment with a weight limit and dollar value budget. All of her classes submitted their proposal at the end of October. Graham was told in December that her class had won.