5…4…3…2…1…Blast off! A rocket was launched high into the air at LP Brown Elementary in front of over 200 of its students. The rocket demonstration was part of a STEAM event organized by LP Brown Elementary and led by Olympia High School Aerospace Club, a student-led club with a mission of outreach. The high schoolers also provided hands-on activities for the elementary students, including paper rockets, gliders and flight challenges.
“The goal was simple: make aerospace feel exciting, approachable, and real for younger students,” shares Ryker Kollmyer, an Olympia High junior and vice president of the club.
Olympia High School Aerospace Club Sparks an Interest in Science
The Olympia High School Aerospace Club was founded in 2023 by Keven Shen, class of ’25. In just three years, the club has grown to over 190 students in middle and high school. They have 16 rocketry teams, have conducted over 130 rocket launches and even placed 18th at the 2025 American Rocketry Challenge, a national competition. They have reached over 2,000 younger students – exposing them to STEM in an explosive and memorable way, sparking interest that just might carry into a future career.
“The focus of the club is to give students real, hands-on experience with aerospace engineering as well as create excitement around aerospace engineering for our younger audiences through outreach events,” shares Ryker.
This unique club allows kids to actually get hands-on experience designing, building, testing and launching aerospace projects. They fail, learn from those failures, and try again. “For many students, the club becomes a launchpad into engineering, aviation, robotics, physics, and hands-on technical work,” he adds.
“My favorite part of the club as a leader is getting involved with other kids in the club. It’s fun to get to work with friends and problem-solve together,” shares Aaryan Verma, leadership member.
“Doing outreach allowed me to see the kids being curious about aerospace and the mechanics behind it, I love the idea of them growing up to be aerospace engineers or pursue STEM because of what we did,” adds Grant Conner, leadership member and Outreach Team member.
Ryker believes the club is successful because of the way they introduce kids to these high-level science concepts. “It gives students a serious engineering pathway that is very different from a normal classroom or academic club,” he shares. “Our club skips the concept of long lectures, and instead directly places a project in the hands of a student, which is rare for a high school club.”
At the LP Elementary event, the feedback was obvious.
“That was so cool, the kids thought it was awesome!” shares Principal Shannon Ritter.
One elementary student was ready to dive in: “Dad, can you please buy one? I want to launch rockets just like they did!”
“That was the coolest thing I’ve seen at a school since the time I was in my high school rocketry club,” shared one parent
Free Hands On Children’s Museum Workshops
This summer, you can find members of the Olympia High School Aerospace Club at the Hands On Children’s Museum, conducting free workshops for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, and their families.
Some of the activities may include an interactive rocketry booth where kids can hold the different parts of a rocket and understand what they feel like and how light they are; a glider challenge where kids try to balance an unstable glider with a small glob of putty; a parachute drop challenge (this is a maybe for now) where kids can launch parachutes in the wind tube room; a paper rocket building station; a mars rover learning activity; and/or a Bernoulli effect experiment using the wind tubes.
“We will be making an appearance at a First Friday Night events in which the Hands On Children’s Museum discounts admission costs every first Friday of the month,” shares Ryker. “One of the big events we are discussing is hosting a water rocket finale, which is still under consideration but heavily leaning towards a ‘yes.’”
The dates will be:
- June 24, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- July 3, 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. (First Friday Night event)
- July 29, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- August 7, 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. (First Friday Night event)
Support for the Olympia High School Aerospace Club
As you can imagine, the parts and tools for this club are not inexpensive. And neither is organizing or participating in outreach events. But the club loves every minute of it. “I have to say that I love being a leader of both the high school and outreach portions of the club because I get to share my passion for aerospace with others and it’s really inspiring to see so many young kids, especially in elementary and middle school, develop such a strong affinity for rocketry and aerospace,” shares Ryker. “The club as a whole is a testament to the idea that passionate and devoted leaders inspire the next generation of leaders. I watched as one of my close friends got hooked on aerospace through our club, sparking a passion that followed him through his high school years and led to him winning two special awards and second place for his Aerospace research project at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair (Evan Jolliff).”
Aside from outreach, club members also compete in local and national rocketry events. They usually do about four to six competitions a year. “We are very thankful for Puget Sound Silent Flyers for letting us use their flying field to launch rockets,” says Ryker.
Funding is always a struggle he adds. They need sponsors to help offset the costs of the club, which is free to anyone who wants to join. Ryker says the club needs a bit over $9,500 annually. The team works on getting donations through grant writing, approaching local businesses and asking for donations.
You can learn more on the Olympia High School Aerospace Club website, including information on how to become a sponsor.
