A team of students from the William S. Cohen School in Bangor submitted a winning experiment during the 2025-2026 NASA TechRise Challenge.
The national education platform Future Engineers has invited Maine middle and high school students to join the 2026-2027 NASA TechRise Student Challenge.
This nationwide contest invites students in grades 6 through 12 to team up with their classmates to design an experiment under the guidance of an educator. Teams submit ideas for experiments to fly on a NASA-sponsored suborbital commercial flight test. No experience is necessary to join the Challenge, which is expected to open in September. Entries will be due later this fall.
In the 2025-2026 NASA TechRise Student Challenge, a team of students from Bangor’s William S. Cohen School submitted a winning experiment to test how the stratosphere affects yeast. Read more about their experiment here, and watch a video of students describing the experiment below:
The Challenge includes information sessions for participants (upon request), free educational resources to support classroom learning, and an exciting virtual student field trip in the fall. Sixty winning teams will receive $1,500 to build their experiment, a spot to test it on a NASA-sponsored flight, and technical support from NASA TechRise advisors.
The Challenge is a great way for students to get hands-on learning with a NASA project. Updated challenge resources (including videos, slide decks, and educator pacing guides) will be available on the Challenge website when the Challenge opens in September.
For more information or with questions, please contact TechRise at techrise@futureengineers.org.
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