Two Woodland High School students selected to take part in Western Aerospace Scholars Program

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Woodland High School juniors Casey Logan and Bella Mattison were selected by The Museum of Flight’s Western Aerospace Scholars (WAS) program to attend a “summer phase” where student teams from across the Pacific Northwest work together to plan a mission to Mars. 

The teams work alongside professional engineers, scientists and educators from Boeing, NASA and other aerospace organizations, according to a news release. 

The Museum of Flight in Seattle offers the WAS program as an online distance-learning course and combines a summer experience designed for high school students interested in pursuing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) career paths. 

According to the release, during its first phase, 300 students from Idaho, Oregon and Washington take part in an online college curriculum created by the University of Washington. It’s focused on NASA’s space exploration programs and each student earns five college credits upon completing the course.

The second phase of the program takes place over the summer when four teams of students are selected to travel to Seattle, as long as the coronavirus pandemic permits it. The students would tour the Boeing factory floor, visit the particle accelerator at the University of Washington and work to develop a mission to Mars. Students select from NASA equipment to design space vehicles, rovers, habitats and solve complex problems astronauts may encounter during space travel. 

According to the release, Logan and Mattison started participating in WAS as a part of the sophomore program where students receive a few units of material from the online course as a jumpstart. 

“Each week, we received an essay prompt … involving the trip to Mars and related subjects,” Logan said in the release. “We had to calculate how much oxygen a team would need, how a team would grow food and also solved other issues that an astronaut team might face during the trip.” 

Mattison took part in the summer program during her sophomore year, which was held completely online due to the pandemic. 



“We received materials in the mail to work on projects with our team through Zoom,” she said. “I really enjoyed the summer program, although it was incredibly intense with entire days spent on Zoom.”

Logan developed a love for science and math at a young age thanks to her father, an engineer. 

“My dad worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab for NASA in California and encouraged me to take science and math classes throughout school,” she said. “During my freshman year, I took Ms. Talvitie’s astronomy course and it is still my favorite class.”

Mattison’s interest in space and aeronautics stemmed from “Star Wars.” She credits her teachers throughout her academic career for encouraging her to take advanced math and science courses at Clark College. 

“I took biology my freshman year and enjoyed it so much that I wanted to work ahead, taking college biology classes at Clark where I realized I already understood many of the concepts before the professor presented them,” she said. “When you have good teachers like those I’ve had at Woodland, everything becomes more enjoyable and easier to understand.”

Over 1,790 students have completed the WAS program since 2006, stated the release.