College of Engineering

Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering

STEM Outreach

Members of the HPCL have been active in supporting STEM education at both the University and in the surrounding community. Team members worked closely with the National Association of Rocketry and Federation of Galaxy Explorers national organization in 2003 to establish the Galaxy Explorers summer science camps with the local State College Area School District (SCASD). Since then, every summer a team of research staff, graduate students, and undergraduate volunteers from the research group instruct the rocketry unit (fundamentals of rocket propulsion with building and launching of model rockets) for the Galaxy Explorers (Grades 3 - 5) and Moon Base I (Grades 6 - 8) week-long day camps.

At the university level, members of the HPCL have worked with the Penn State undergraduate student teams (LionTech Rocket Labs) participating in the NASA University Space Launch Initiative (USLI) and Battle of the Rockets competitions, providing technical mentoring and test facilities for propulsion system characterization.