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MARS READY? PARISH EPISCOPAL TEAM WINS NASA CHALLENGE
School builds two vehicles as annual international co-ed STEAM contest goes virtual
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SEATED ON THE GROUND, FROM LEFT: Hailey Baer, Amelia Stotland, Anita Mahtani, and Rivers Glover. SEATED ON ROVERS: Will Baschab, Clay Kollinger, Ryland Marshall, and Austin Shaunfield. STANDING: Coach Jenn Makins, Luke Hanft, Coach Fallon Ahearn, Grant Williams, Jonas Pearson, Maggie Hoffman, Michaela Creel, Micah Lampert, Jeremy Kaplinsky, Coach Dave Cribbs, Raj Anthony, and Jack Ashmore. BOTTOM LEFT: With the Human Exploration Rover Challenge held virtually this year, students videoed their rover runs. BOTTOM RIGHT: NASA
Rover Awards (PHOTOS: WILEY WILLIAMS)
By Norishka Pachot
People Newspapers
Parish Episcopal School’s journey to the top of NASA standings began eight years ago with the founding of a rover team.
“Our first years, we weren’t that good, but we pushed through that and had a lot of fun,” coach Jenn Makins said. “We learned a lot and even managed to win awards.”
Those wins included a fifth-place high school division finish in the Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) in 2017. That year’s rover went on display at the Perot Museum of Nature in Dallas to inspire other students to explore STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).
However, this year Parish exceeded that by far, with one of its teams named the overall winner with a first-place finish in the high school division and a project review award. Its other team won a social media award.
Those wins came in April, but the trophies arrived more recently.
“It’s been a few months, and it’s still kind of surreal,” Makins said. “The kids were jumping up and down, and fist-bumping each other, and hugging.”
HERC, meant to inspire high school and college students, tasks U.S. and international teams “to design, engineer, and test a human-powered rover on a course that simulates the terrain found on rocky bodies in the solar system,” according to nasa.gov.
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, usually hosts the competition, but the event went virtual this year because of the pandemic.
“The challenges you faced with this competition go beyond anything we’ve seen before, from designing the wheels and mission tools to executing mission requirements like sample retrievals and deploying instruments,” center director Jody Singer said in announcing the winners.
Parish teams built two pedal-powered rovers – one from Chromoly steel and the other with a composite frame combining fiber and insulation – and created three courses to simulate a rocky extraterrestrial terrain.
Rovers must complete the courses and assigned tasks in less than eight minutes and have both a male and female operator. That’s not a problem at Parish, where the program has high gender diversity with 40% girls.
In 2019, working with Dallas-based Lyda Hill Philanthropies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science selected Makins as one of the 125 IF/THEN ambassadors. These “women innovators” from throughout the nation help promote STEM education and careers to girls.
The Parish coaching staff also includes assistant coach Fallon Ahearn and coach Dave Cribbs, who founded the Parish program with Mankins in 2014.
“It has been an eight-year journey, and the kids have passed down information to each other,” Makins said.
Work will resume at the beginning of the fall semester as the next teams prepare to go to Alabama in March 2022.
“I’m as proud as I can be of the kids and the coaches,” Makins said. “We’re all resting, but we’re ready for next year and the next group.”
VISIT YOUTUBE.COM AND SEARCH FOR:
• Jenn Makins Parish Episcopal School Team 1 NASA HERC 2021
• Parish Episcopal School Team 2 NASA HERC 2021
Just Call Me “Flo”
If I came face to face with the Pope, I could not tell a lie. I would truthfully tout that while I am not perfect, I am pretty awesome. I am a good mom. I always put my kids’ needs first, except MICHELE VALDEZ when I have a tennis match or during happy hour.
And, I am a loving wife, except when “I’m not in the mood.”
But, under the hot lights of St. Peters Square, I would also confess that “I am no Florence Nightingale” – at least when it comes to my betrothed.
If the kids are sick, my sympathy abounds, but with my hubby, I say – gut it out. I often wonder if I watch too much of Aunt Lydia on Handmaid’s Tale.
Whatever the reason, winter is coming.
In August, my permanent paramour is having elbow surgery. Oddly enough, I am numb with lack of worry yet possessed by concern that his operation will put me out of commission. I may have to cook and drive that man around for weeks.
Can’t I ditch the “In sickness and in health” overreach if I have a good record on the other vows? I hope his orthopedic knife thrower knows that my tennis game can’t survive a long recovery.
And, shouldn’t I get some credit for the times I have been pseudo-supportive? A couple of years ago, my love had a colonoscopy – and I was selfless. Like a reformed Nurse Ratched, I drove him to the gastro place, waited forever, and delivered him home with McDonald’s hamburger and chocolate shake in hand. Then, I made sure he was fully medicated and asleep before I left to play tennis. Sure, I felt a little guilty, but I had a match the next day.
Recently, aided by a heavy pour of chardonnay, I recounted the times I had been a good caregiver to my loving man.
As I finished the glass, my mind wandered to tennis – again. Then, like a fuzzy yellow ball to the face, it hit me. My sweet spouse is my partner in life, kind of like my partner on the tennis court, and if he is having a bad match or is injured, then I need to step up. I need to be a team player.
That day I added the Tennis Channel to our Spectrum package and prepared for surgery.
Michele Valdez, a slightly compulsive, mildly angry feminist, has been an attorney and community volunteer. She has four demanding adult children, an enthusiastic black lab, and a patient husband.
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12 August 2021 | prestonhollowpeople.com Have Strings, Will Travel DSO musicians use outdoor concerts to support youth music education
By Samantha Ponce
Special Contributor
COVID-19 put the world on pause, but a Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) violinist wouldn’t let it silence the music.
In late spring of 2020, Daphne Volle accepted an invitation to play her violin on a neighbor’s front lawn. Little did she know that would be the start of many outdoor concerts that would end up raising thousands of dollars for young underprivileged musicians.
Volle’s performance grabbed the attention of many passersby.
Asked to perform again, she invites more DSO musicians to join her.
“My colleagues have been so willing to do it,” Volle said. “I want to say that the Dallas Symphony has an extraordinary willpower to not let us stop because of the pandemic.”
Growing from duets to trios to quartets, and so on, Volle and other DSO musicians have voluntarily played in Oak Cliff, Garland, Irving, and many other North Texas locations.
Along the way, the outdoor concerts became a fundraiser for the education department of the DSO. The roughly
Daphne Volle has organized several concerts near the clubhouse in the Hillcrest Villa neighborhood east of Hillcrest Road and north of Churchill Park. FROM LEFT: Daphne Volle, Aissatou Rasa, Johnathan Ramos, Kaira Rasa, Eliseo Simon, Cecilia O’Brien, Filip Fenrych, Jenna
Barghouti, Jeff Hood, and David Sywak. (PHOTOS: SAMANTHA PONCE)
$15,000 raised during the past year provides instruments and private lessons for students in the Young Strings program and Bucker T. Washington High School.
Indoor concerts also continued under the leadership of Kim Noltemy, the Ross Perot president and CEO of the Dallas Symphony Association.
COVID-19 safety protocols include reducing the size of the orchestra and extending the distance between musicians on the stage. Every morning before performing, musicians are tested. Only around 200 people are allowed in audiences.
The DSO made it a purpose to stay alive for the community and found ways to turn coincidences into fantastic opportunities that help shape the lives of young individuals in the Dallas community, Volle said. “We are going to find a way to keep playing.”
AGE CATEGORY 2-4 WINNER:
Marcus Zarate (4 years old)
AGE CATEGORY 5-7 WINNER:
Cameron Gulden (6 years old)
AGE CATEGORY 8-10 WINNER:
Hannah Park (10 years old)
AGE CATEGORY 11-13 WINNER:
Caroline Hayes (12 years old)
