Fort Hall high school students working to go ‘back into space’
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FORT HALL — The students, faculty and administration at Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr. High School are working to advance the STEM program and someday return to space.
For the last three years, students have been doing hands-on projects advancing their knowledge of science and technology as part of a career technical education and job placement program with the Idaho National Laboratory. Their efforts earned them a 2024 STEM Impact Award last month at the fourth annual Idaho EcosySTEM.
The students showcase these projects at a STEM night held twice a year. The last one was held on May 2.
“Technology, it’s all gonna be the future,” said Matt Wilson, principal of Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr. High School. “It’s really bringing us up to date with where the future is going.”
The partnership with the INL started in 2021.
But this isn’t the first time Fort Hall students have worked on projects in the field of science and technology. A teacher and students from the school had their research project launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery nearly 30 years ago.
This launch in 1998 was not just the first Native American-created payload sent into orbit, but the first one by high schoolers, according to Dave Archuleta, Chairman of the Shoshone-Bannock School Board.
Students built and designed a system to mix phosphate and water in space to create a fertilizer that could aid future interstellar settlers trying to grow food on another planet. Ed Galindo, a now retired science teacher at the school, helped students submit the project to NASA and get it approved.
When reflecting on this past project, Archuleta thought it was something students could do again.
“I want to get our kids back into space,” Archuleta said.
It turned out plenty of other people wanted that same thing, including INL and school officials. After the school reached out to the laboratory, they worked together to create the career technical education program.
At the forefront of implementation was Mikel Green, the science teacher and STEM coordinator. She said having the students work on their own projects has advanced the student’s education.
“Our students are hands on learners that need to learn tools to be successful both in the community and outside of the community,” Green said. “I just really wanted to get the students engaged and offer more opportunities that allowed them to further careers and more schooling.”
The school offers a host of STEM related programs, from training in and access to welding, 3-D Printers and drones. Students at the school also have the opportunity to take an internship at INL with other students across eastern Idaho.
The school is currently working to receive a STEM accreditation, which would offer students the ability to graduate with a technical diploma.
The school is collecting evidence and documentation of everything they’ve implemented at the school for when it comes time to apply. Wilson said that even after that point, the school won’t stop working to advance its program.
“I think it’s just gonna be something on paper to say, okay, this is official,” Wilson said. “We’re not going to be slowing down anytime soon.”
Jennifer Jackson, the K-12 education programs manager at INL, said the laboratory is already likely to hire some of the students who are participating in the school’s STEM program.
“That is the plan. So we know that if they have gone through our programming that we’ve created and come and been able to work alongside the professionals here, I know they would be prepared for entry level positions,” Jackson said.
Ultimately, the students are still inspired by what Galindo and his students accomplished.
In Green’s physics class, the students build and launch rockets every year.
“If we had the opportunity to make something that goes on a space shuttle again, that would definitely be something up our alley,” Green said.
Archuleta has no doubt the school’s current students could accomplish what Galindo’s students did.
“One of those young people today might have the answer to climate change. One of these young people today might be the next space pioneers. We don’t know. All I know is that it’s our job as a school board to provide them with the tools necessary to be able to accomplish all these great things,” Archuleta said.