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Parish Episcopal School
Parish Episcopal School
Parish Episcopal School

Rover

Parish is home to Texas’ only high school NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) team!  

The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge is hosted by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL and held annually at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, high school and college teams from around the country compete to design and build a pedal powered rover that can successfully navigate a half-mile obstacle course design to simulate Martian and Lunar terrain. 

Each year the team designs, fabricates and builds the rover from scratch.  The team’s work is made possible by advanced design and fabrication equipment in the Walton Alford Welding Shed and Wheeler Family Woodshop housed in the Design Den. 

Awards

2023

  • 2nd Place Award - High School Division
  • STEM Engagement Award

2022

  • 1st Place Award - High School Division
  • Project Review Award
  • Videography Award

2021

  • 1st Place Award - High School Division
  • Social Media Award
  • Project Review Award

2020

  • Project Report Award

2019

  • Team Spirit Award
  • Project Report Award 

2018

  • Neil Armstrong Best Design Award - High School Division
  • Best Report Award - High School Division


2017

  • Neil Armstrong Best Design Award - High School Division
  • Best Report Award - High School Division

2016

  • Telemetry Award - High School Division
  • Best Report Award - High School Division


2015

  • Neil Armstrong Best Design Award - High School Division
  • Most Improved Team - High School Division


2014

  • Frank Joe Sexton Memorial Pit Crew Award

Parish Rover on display at the Perot Museum.

Rover on Display at Perot Museum

The award winning Parish Rover spent time on display at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. The 2017 Rover placed 5th in the world in the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge.

It was part of an exhibit in the Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation Hall for a year. The museum hopes the story of the Parish Rover will inspire others to explore STEM and make new discoveries on their own.

Members of the Parish rover team on stage at TED x SMU.

Rover Team visits TEDx SMU

Former Parish NASA Rover Team members Sophie Alford, Katie Wall, Whitney Wheeler, and Madalyn White spoke about the challenging journey the team had taken.

The secrets to success the team found with the rover are the same needed for not just surviving but thriving in middle and high school.

Watch the talk