Win money, have fun, and work together with your friends
The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is the world's largest rocket contest. Since Balboa City School has a rocketry club, and since our students enjoy building and setting off rockets, it made sense for us to join in the fun and compete in a rocketry contest. Our students (your children) can earn a lot of money, including some college scholarships.
About the Team America Rocketry Challenge
The Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry, with co-sponsorship by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Defense Department, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and 34 AIA member companies, sponsor Team America Rocketry Challenge. The event was originally created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight, but AIA decided to hold it again after receiving hundreds of requests from students, teachers, and parents. 2011 marks the ninth year of the Team America Rocketry Challenge, but it is the first year that BCS students are entering the contest. If you know of a volunteer who could help with this program, please contact us. WE love to learn too, and we have a lot to learn about rockets!
Why this contest?
Balboa City School students are "doers": they learn by doing. They often want and NEED to get away from their desks, their classroom, and the incessant drumbeat of multiple choice "achievement tests." At least, that is often their point of view. Since they are so smart, so creative, and so curious, this type of venue matches their desire for higher learning quite well.Plus, it helps with college admittance, social development, problems solving skills, and the transition to adulthood.
Any other reasons?
Yes, Balboa City School is committed to teaching young people how to work cooperatively toward a common goal. Group projects such as this (or our Lego Robotics program and Video Game development program), developed through our state of the art multimedia program, all work toward the flowering of sophisticated social skills among young students and teenagers. We all know today's young people can use a great deal of assistance and mentoring in this area.
Approximately 7,000 students from across the nation compete in TARC each year. Teams design, build, and fly a model rocket that reaches a specific altitude and duration determined by a set of rules developed each year. TARC is about inspiring the next generation of young people to choose a career in aerospace. The generation that won the Space Race is retiring from America's aerospace industry, creating lots of great jobs and exciting programs. TARC is a stepping stone to the stars!
The top 100 teams, based on local qualification flights, are invited to Washington, DC in May for the national finals. Prizes include $60,000 in cash and scholarships split between the top 10 finishers. NASA invites top teams to participate in their Student Launch Initiative, an advanced rocketry program. AIA member companies, such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, have sponsored additional prizes including scholarship money and a trip to the international air show.
You can help!
Parents and supporters of Balboa City School, this and other programs are free to all our students and even free to some students (space permitting) who do not attend our school. However, they are not really free as the La Jolla Learning Foundation supports them, and the foundation could use your help. If you are able to make a donation toward this program, please contact jlindfelt@balboaschool.com. One hundred percent of all money raised for the La Jolla Learning Foundation goes directly to support students in need or programs such as this. Thank you for considering a donation.