Members of Hartselle High School's ANGGRI BIRD Engineering III team received an achievement award from Hartselle Rotary Club on Jan. 29. The team was judged best overall in a space payload competition sponsored by UAH and NASA in December, Team members, from left, are: (front) Eli Bair, Colton Ord, teacher Kim Pittman, (back) Nick Watson, Jack Holland, Chris Brown, Jake Whitt and Michael Powell. | Clif Knight

Hartselle High School’s ANGGRI BIRD (Analyzing the Native Geology of Gunymeade as a Result of Intrusion by an Impactor to Receive Data) team received an Outstanding Achievement Award from Hartselle Rotary Club on Jan. 29.

Its seven members and teacher Kim Pittman were recognized for winning four awards, including the best overall team award in InSPIRESS, a space payload competition co-sponsored by the University of Alabama–Huntsville and NASA in December.

Competing against 27 other high school teams from North Alabama and Southern Tennessee, the HHS students won first place awards for project proposal and presentation and second place for display booth. The overall award was based on the cumulative score

of the oral presentation – 50 percent – and 25 percent each of the written proposal and display booth.

They, along with Principal Jeff Hyche, were visitors of the club at its weekly luncheon meeting at Sedona Steakhouse, and received their award from Hartselle Mayor and Club President Don Hall.

Team members explained their project step-by-step in a 15-minute video presentation and took questions afterwards. They will repeat the presentation during spring break in March as guests of Dr. Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary sciences, in Washington, D.C.

What the students achieved with their project could someday be used as a payload on a space mission to a distant moon, according to Pittman.

At the end of the program, the students identified themselves and related their plans for the future. Most indicated a preference for engineering.