Rdale students preliminarily present NASA HUNCH designs

Sharing their engineering passion and creativity, students from Armstrong High School (AHS) and Cooper High School (CHS) participated in a NASA HUNCH (High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware) Preliminary Design Review held at Dunwoody College on Dec. 12.

For the first time since NASA HUNCH programming was adopted by Robbinsdale Area Schools (Rdale), both AHS and CHS had teams presenting their designs. AHS has 24 students in 10 teams, working on a variety of projects including flight configuration, redesigning a utility desk, culinary challenges, a Mars trash ejector, and more. The four teams from CHS, made up of 12 students, have chosen to focus on projects related to jumping robots, recycled materials chess sets, storage for lunar samples, and a nanolab for crops. 

The Preliminary Design Review is the midpoint of these projects, serving a critical purpose for students to receive feedback from NASA engineers, Dunwoody professors, and peers before the Critical Design Review on Feb. 26.

NASA HUNCH empowers students to develop essential 21st-century skills—such as critical thinking, collaboration, and technical expertise—by tackling authentic challenges sourced directly from NASA’s ongoing missions.

Students work side-by-side with NASA professionals, contributing to solutions for the International Space Station (ISS) and supporting NASA’s bold Moon to Mars Initiative, ensuring their work has a direct impact on the future of space exploration.

Last year, Rdale was named a NASA HUNCH Center of Excellence. This designation recognizes the district’s outstanding contributions to NASA’s project-based learning program, making it only the fourth district in the country to earn this prestigious title.