Sanger students aim for the stars, winning a NASA competition

SANGER, Calif. (KFSN) -- Engineering students at Sanger High School have been working hard on projects they recently presented to NASA.

Students aimed for the stars, taking part in NASA HUNCH, which stands for High School students United with NASA to Create Hardware.

"It's a project-based learning environment and project-based opportunity for the students to design and fabricate different prototypes for NASA, for problems they currently have and they are trying to solve," said Carmen Garvis, who is a teacher at Sanger High.

The Sanger Apaches entered in four teams to solve three different problems - sleeping quarters, tool storage, and food storage.

Angelina Aguirre and her team chose the issue of improving the astronauts' sleeping quarters.

"They wanted really compact, collapsible, easy to setup and put away. So we found out fiber glass poles was the best idea instead of PVC pipe or bulky stuff," she said.

They added in extra features, like a table, mirror, window and a way to hold the opening flaps down.

All the teams presented their designs to NASA, through video chat.

"It's truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm very fortunate for me and my team to be a part of this and to have this opportunity, " said student Daniel Rodriguez.

Rodriguez explained his team created and designed a different way to store extra tools.

Aguirre's team won in their category for the western region and were invited to the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas to present their prototype to NASA engineers and astronauts.

"We were all shooting to create something and when the news came that we won, it was unbelievable, out of this world," Garvis explained.

Aguirre explained it was an amazing experience to be at the space center.

"We saw mission control and were all around there. I just never thought I would actually be there," said said.

She mentioned this really helped her understand her passion for what she wants to do after high school.

Aguirre plans on going to college for engineering.

"I would love to work for NASA," she said.