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The Tuscaloosa Rocketry Challenge, founded in 2015, is a community effort within Alabama Rocketry Association to get local 6th graders excited for rocketry and STEM subjects. TRC is a weeklong hands-on science course/competition for 6th grade students across Tuscaloosa County. Undergraduate volunteers are sent into local middle schools to engage 6th graders in hands-on lectures based on rocketry and engineering and how to build and launch water powered bottle rockets. The week-long curriculum leads up to a school-wide launch with winners from each school earning a trip to the University of Alabama for the final competition
TRC was started for four primary reasons:
● Increase STEM engagement to underrepresented groups
● Introduce young students to the Aerospace industry and other technical career paths
● Increase young students’ interest in collegiate paths
● Provide college students with the ability to connect with our surrounding community
TRC is a constantly growing effort. Over the past three years, we have had over 6,000 6th grade students participate in the program and have sent over 200 undergraduate students to facilitate the program. Your donation will help grow the program and impact even more students across the Southeast.
We believe the most important of the primary goals is to increase these young students’ interest in technical career paths. When we say that we are targeting underrepresented groups, we are talking about kids that believe that they may not be capable of pursuing a technical career path. This is what we really want to change in our communities.
Each year that TRC grows, more funds are needed. At each middle school, we provide materials for the water bottle rockets, lesson plans, and volunteers. For the final competition, we pay to feed and entertain the students, we provide tours of the university, and we host the competition on university grounds. We would like to keep TRC a strong program, and your funds will directly contribute to the future success of the project.
$25 will cover the cost of water bottle rocket materials for 1 student.
$50 will cover the cost of one 6th grade student's participation in TRC.
$250 will cover the cost of an entire 6th grade class’ participation in TRC.
$500 will cover the cost to send a winning student to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL.
$1,000 will cover the cost of an entire school’s participation in TRC.