Rocket Club holds showcase tonight

The rocket club, led by Zeb Nicholson, a teacher in math and Project Lead The Way, introduced a new event this year: the Rocket Club Showcase. 

According to Nicholson, the idea for the showcase stemmed from the club’s desire to raise awareness about the rocket club and the new high school.

“The process really started with our club knowing that, over the last 10 years, we’ve never really been that big of a club in terms of the community’s awareness,” Nicholson said. “So we thought if we hosted a showcase, not only could we show off the new high school—because a lot of people are still looking to come in and see it—we could also show off what the club has been working on.”

The club received support from local businesses, helping to provide refreshments for the event.

“We did not have problems getting donations from local businesses. We wanted to make sure we had refreshments, drinks and snacks so that people could enjoy a little bit of food and beverage while they were walking around and looking at our showcase,” Nicholson said.

However, hosting the showcase came with its challenges, especially unpredictable weather.

“One of our biggest challenges was the weather interfering with our plans,” Nicholson said. “It was difficult to get the event going with two weather-related school cancellations pushing back our showcase.”

Despite these obstacles, the main focus of the showcase remained unchanged.

“The main focus is getting the community and our club of students connected,” Nicholson said. “Getting the kids out there to a point where people in the community are made aware. Everyone knows we have a football team. Everyone knows we have a basketball team. Heck, I think even most people know Cedar Falls has a really big robotics team, but not that many people know we have a rocket club. We do amazing things. We work with NASA every year. We go to Washington, D.C., regularly to compete nationally, and we achieve some of the highest awards given to teams in our competitions, but people just don’t know about it.”

Following the showcase, the club has more work ahead as it prepares for an upcoming competition. Nicholson said, “We have a contest that’s really starting to culminate, so we’ll have to start building some 8- to 9-foot rockets to present to NASA.”

The rocket club showcase will be held today, Feb. 26, at 5 p.m. at the high school.