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       RTA Students and Staff embarked on the first school wide STEM Challenge of the year.  

•        Students were divided in 5 different teams within their Homeroom Class: Green, Blue, Purple, Gold and Grey Team. 
•        Each team is competing for points which will go towards the RTA Science Olympics in the spring. 
•        Students will also have an opportunity to work as a larger team, joining different grades throughout the year.​

RTA STEM Challenge #1

RTA School Wide Stem Challenge SOCT 

The SOCT – The Single Object Collision Test 

• RTA's first STEM challenge has been created in spirit of NASA’s recent DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) planetary defence mission - where NASA crashed a 610 kg (the weight of a car) spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos at a distance of 10 600 000 km from earth. 
• The DART Spacecraft was launched on the 24 November 2021 and crashed into Dimorphos close to a year later September 26, 2022, the space craft was hurled into the Dimorphos as an asteroid impact planetary saving device.

The Challenge:

• Your team has been tasked with creating a 3 Popsicle stick gizmo that will be projected to an “asteroid” (ball) that will be in the centre of your room. 
• You will need to Brainstorm with your crew and plan before you are given materials to build your gizmo and projectile device. 
• Grades 5-6 need to hit the “asteroid” 
• Grades 7-9 need to stick to the “asteroid” 
  

Materials: • Asteroid 1 per class Per group grades 5-9 • 8 popsicle sticks 3 must be made into the “projectile” • 1 m of tape • 8 popsicle sticks in total • 2 elastics Per group grades 7 - 9 • Small piece of Velcro 7- 9 

Each team will have 2 attempts at success (NASA had only one and they had to wait a year to see if their single shot worked​.