Bishop John Noonan | Diocese of Orland website

Several months ago, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University reached out to Donna Wilkins, a teacher and STEM Club director at St. Peter School, about applying for a grant to participate in the "Build the Moon" project. The school secured the grant, and with just over a month to complete the task, St. Peter students achieved recognition.

A team of seven middle schoolers from St. Peter won top honors in the national Build the Moon Challenge, sponsored by the California-based Institute of Competition Sciences. Competing against students from eight states, they impressed judges with their innovation and creativity, ultimately winning the best in show award.

The competition required middle and high school students to tackle a lunar engineering challenge—designing and testing materials for potential use in building infrastructure on the moon. The project focused on a simulated lunar regolith—a loose material covering solid rock surfaces like those on Earth or other planets. Developed in Central Florida, teams could modify it using additives while keeping within a 50/50 ratio. Wilkins noted their unique additive was sawdust.

"The students worked diligently to create material suitable for use in multiple lunar applications," said Wilkins. Their experiments assessed density, solubility, weight-bearing capabilities, drop resistance, wettability, and chemical reactivity with soap and alcohol.

Beyond physical materials, students designed a lunar habitat as well. Eighth-grader Sophia C., who used CAD software OnShape for illustration, found this aspect particularly engaging. "I wanted to be part of this project because I am very interested in STEM-related subjects," she explained.

Sophia shared insights into how effort-intensive space projects are: "The topic of what materials realistically could go onto the moon with a realistic budget… that shocked me."

Students conducted research into feasible additives and design shapes using knowledge of the moon’s environment to minimize transporting materials from Earth. Their final hexagonal habitat design was supported by thorough documentation including narratives and presentations.

Eighth-grader Francisco L., who participated thinking it would be "a fun new experience," enjoyed constructing under time constraints: "Everything had to be done in a month."

Jeyron J.'s highlight was testing their version of regolith: “Everybody got to do at least one test.” The final recipe included sawdust pieces along with corn starch and plaster of Paris.

Despite meeting only once weekly through St. Peter's STEM Club due to limited timeframes, students dedicated extra hours toward realizing their vision successfully — perhaps eyeing Mars next?

Wilkins expressed pride: “Their curiosity...and teamwork were on full display." She added humorously regarding future ambitions beyond this year's competition results: “As dust settles here—perhaps onto Mars?”