- Rising Seniors Parent Meeting
Students at The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park who are interested in aerospace engineering were invited to attend Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Tour events at Reagan Airport on May 7. The events allowed for students from select high schools and universities in the Washington D.C. area to be amongst the first attending the week-long celebration of the arrival of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft to the region.
The tour included a briefing by Mike Sinnett, 787 Chief Engineer with Boeing, which allowed students to learn about fundamental innovations of the 787 commercial aircraft including its composite structure, advanced aerodynamics, as well high-bypass engines. With these innovations, the Dreamliner will not only allow for usage of composite recycling, but will also allow for less environmental impact by lowering CO2 emissions and noise. The students also learned about breakthrough passenger experiences that the 787 will offer including large dimmable windows, LED lighting lower cabin altitude, and cleaner air circulating throughout the cabin.
The event concluded with a tour of the aircraft which allowed them to see the state-of-the-art flight deck as well as experience some of the enhancements first-hand.
Jamie Null, a senior at The Governor’s School as well as Osbourn High School, was interested in touring the 787 Dreamliner after hearing about the obstacles Boeing faced during its production from her uncle, Shep Hill, who is president of Boeing International and senior vice president of Business Development and Strategy. “It took much longer than expected to be completed, so seeing it come to fruition was an incredible experience. It is a record-breaking aircraft, and getting access to be one of the first to see it was a great privilege.”
Tau Ly, a senior at The Governor’s School as well as Potomac High School, plans to pursue an aeronautical engineering degree at Virginia Tech beginning this fall. He was grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn more detailed information about such a ground-breaking aircraft since his mind has been dazzled by airplanes since a very early age.
Ha Young Shin and her classmates from The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park made a dramatic statement by capturing several top prizes at the 2012 Prince William County-Manassas Regional Science Fair held on March 17.
Shin, who also attends Battlefield High School, was awarded the Senior Division Grand Prize for her project, “Can Haloarchaea Replace Potasium for Cesium?” Her project relates to extremophiles, which are organisms that thrive in extreme environments. Shin conducted her experimental research on extremophiles under the guidance of her mentor, Dr. Carol Litchfield of George Mason University. Litchfield gave Shin full access to her lab facilities and equipment.
Shin's project displayed an impressive grasp of microbiology and put the spotlight on the higher-level science education received by students as part of The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park program. Shin was one of two PWCS students, both of whom attend The Governor's School @ Innovation Park, on the Virginia team that competed in the International Space Olympics in Russia in October 2011. Shin won an honorable mention award.
Adding additional emphasis, each student entry from The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park garnered an award at this year’s Science Fair, including a first place win for Samantha Hughes in the animal sciences category. Aleco Reynolds, who also attends Battlefield High School, earned second place category winner on his “Automated Hyperspectral Trash Sorter” project as well as the Most Outstanding Engineering Project and Most Outstanding 11th Grade Exhibit in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or Chemistry award.
George Schwartz, who attends Osbourn Park High School as well as The Governor’s School, earned second place category winner as well as multiple certificates for his “Measuring the Effects of Micron Particles Generated by Humans in Domestic Environments” project. Brandon Sananikone, who also attends Osbourn Park High School, earned third place category award as well as multiple certificates for his “Measuring Drag on Objects in Viscous Fields” project.
Aditi Jain who also attends Freedom High School, and partners Kendra Gardner and Manjot Nagyal who also attend Manassas Park High School, earned second place category winner as well as multiple certificates on their “Testing the Effectiveness of Phage on Controlling Mycobacterium” project.
Hannah Porter, who also attends Brentsville District High School, earned honorable mention in her category as well as multiple certificates for her project on “Creating More Durable Concrete Using Fly Ash.”
The Governor’s School Director and faculty members are very proud of these students’ achievements and grateful for the hard work and dedication put forth by the students and mentors.
Congratulations to our students who attended Capitol Day at the Virginia State Capitol on Monday, March 5, 2012. Greg Toms, Tau Ly, Alex Cerniuk, Angela Cho, Ha Young Shin, and Hannah Porter (pictured) represented The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park as they visited with local legislative representatives including Senator Colgan to talk about The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park and thank them for continuing to support Virginia’s Academic-Year Governor’s Schools.
Congratulations to our Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) team for winning the state level "Governor's Cup" recognition for best engineering design in an aerospace-based challenge two consecutive years.
The RWDC annual competition provides real-world engineering challenges to high school students in which they utilize professional engineering software in a team approach to address technical problems and create solutions similar to those encountered in the engineering workforce. The 2012 state-level challenge was to design a light sport aircraft following Federal Aviation Administration criteria that met specific requirements including carbon emission levels, weight accommodations, speed, and altitude.
Karen Wolfson, coordinator of the team and physics teacher at The Governor's School @ Innovation Park, commented that a memorable moment during the challenge occurred on Friday, January 27 at 3:08 p.m. It was at this time that the team realized that the software they were using was measuring in centimeters, not meters, and that changing the thickness of the wing from 0.25 to 25 resulted in a plane that would actually fly. Wolfson commented that "The joy expressed by the students was nothing compared to the joy I experienced in seeing physics concepts put to good use."
The team members (pictured above) Jesse Dews, Caylin Dawson, Kitty Nguyen, and Angela Cho as well as Mrs. Karen Wolfson will receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. April 20th to 23rd to compete in the national level finals.
