Aaron and Jeff are joined by Allen Lombardozzi and Elaine LaFuria, two STEM teachers from the Harbor Creek School District. They share the story behind Advanced Technologies Group, a student program powered by HAM radio, science, and sheer curiosity. From building antennas to speaking directly with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, their students are putting STEM to good use.
Aaron and Jeff are joined by Allen Lombardozzi and Elaine LaFuria, two STEM teachers from the Harbor Creek School District. They share the story behind Advanced Technologies Group, a student program powered by HAM radio, science, and sheer curiosity. From building antennas to speaking directly with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, their students are putting STEM to good use.
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Voiceover:
Welcome to Duty Free Lunch, the official podcast of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Join us as we unpack the issues that matter most to you. From cutting-edge classroom strategies to thought-provoking policy discussions, if it impacts PSEA members, it's on the menu.
Aaron Chapin:
Hello and welcome to Duty Free Lunch. I'm PSEA President, Aaron Chapin. I'm here today with PSEA Vice President, Jeff Ney. Greetings, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Wow. Are you trying out a new voice or something, Aaron?
Aaron Chapin:
I was.
Jeff Ney:
Man, you know what? That's from one of our other podcasts. To be able to talk in a low, steady voice, that's fantastic.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, I was trying to get everybody in the right mindset and to focus on what I was saying.
Jeff Ney:
Oh my goodness. It's so relaxing. That's the kind of voice-
Aaron Chapin:
It let me back in the classroom. This is the voice I would use all the time.
Jeff Ney:
Speaking about being back in the classroom, we're recording this in the beginning of our winter time. We have snow all throughout the state. Is that one thing that you miss? Do you miss those snow days?
Aaron Chapin:
No.
Jeff Ney:
No. Not at all?
Aaron Chapin:
Not one bit. I hate snow days. I don't like winter.
Jeff Ney:
You don't like winter?
Aaron Chapin:
No. And unfortunately, our guests, they're in winter most of the time.
Jeff Ney:
All the time?
Aaron Chapin:
In fact, it's snowing there today.
Jeff Ney:
It is.
Aaron Chapin:
And I think there's a clipper running through there tomorrow, but they're going to let us know about that.
Jeff Ney:
But listen, it could be August and it could still snow where they are.
Aaron Chapin:
It's a beautiful part of, beautiful part of the state.
Jeff Ney:
Beautiful part of the state.
Aaron Chapin:
When it's not snowing.
Jeff Ney:
Yes.
Aaron Chapin:
And I think our treasurer is up there in that neck of the woods there right now.
Jeff Ney:
Yes, she is.
Aaron Chapin:
So unfortunately, she might have a little trouble getting back to these parts.
Jeff Ney:
That's okay. She should take her time and be safe.
Aaron Chapin:
Absolutely. She should stay up there for a while.
Jeff Ney:
I wouldn't say that.
Aaron Chapin:
Be safe. I can't wait until she listens. Hey, let's get to today's guest. This is a really exciting topic, something you talked to me about.
Jeff Ney:
It's out of this world.
Aaron Chapin:
It is out of this world. Today, we have Allen Lombardozzi and Elaine LaFuria. They're two exceptional teachers from the Harbor Creek School District. And if you all haven't caught on, it's in the far northwest corner of this great commonwealth.
They lead the Advanced Technologies Group. It's a program that brings students closer to space science and communication through hands-on learning with HAM radio technology.
Jeff Ney:
I know. HAM Radio.
Aaron Chapin:
That's not meat.
Jeff Ney:
It's not meat?
Aaron Chapin:
No, it's not. HAM radio.
Jeff Ney:
I thought it was like a charcuterie.
Aaron Chapin:
No, no, no.
Jeff Ney:
Okay.
Aaron Chapin:
Last year though, this group of students in the Advanced Technology Group, they made contact with the International Space Station in a segment that actually was on The Today Show.
Jeff Ney:
I know. I was there.
Aaron Chapin:
That's crazy. I can't wait to hear more about it because you told me about it and I don't believe anything you said. So we're going to get a little bit more background from our guests. First though, Allen, in addition to teaching sixth grade math, science, social studies, he's the Harbor Creek EA president.
Jeff Ney:
Yes, he is.
Aaron Chapin:
He's a licensed class HAM. Not that HAM, nope.
Jeff Ney:
Gotcha.
Aaron Chapin:
Class HAM operator. And he's a volunteer firefighter and EMT for the past 25 years. That's quite the resume. Allen, you're putting us all to shame. Welcome to the podcast, Allen.
Allen Lombardozzi:
Thank you, Aaron and Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Thanks for your service as an EMT.
Aaron Chapin:
That's right. That's quite the resume. I don't know how you have time to be doing this podcast. And then Elaine, she's been a public school teacher for 32 years. She's the gifted support teacher for the Harbor Creek School District.
She also received her HAM radio technician license back in 2021, and she did it in order to help start the advanced technologies group that year. So welcome to you, Elaine.
Elaine LaFuria:
Thank you, gentlemen.
Aaron Chapin:
You got it.
Jeff Ney:
Gentlemen, that's nice.
Aaron Chapin:
I know. She doesn't know us well enough yet. So let's get right into this because-
Jeff Ney:
Yeah, I have a lot of questions.
Aaron Chapin:
We have a lot of questions because this is something that really, really blows my mind.
Jeff Ney:
It's amazing.
Aaron Chapin:
So how did this idea for the Advanced Technologies Group even come about in the first place, and what were the early days like?
Elaine LaFuria:
I think in the early days, the idea sprung when we were all home learning during the pandemic. So at our time, our assistant principal, Drew Mortenson, who is now our assistant superintendent, had some special interests in HAM radio. And there were a couple students here that were involved in scouting.
And they talked about the idea, wouldn't it be great to have a club at Harbor Creek? And we're all home dreaming up all these things that we were going to do, and we got back to school and they did some investigation and they needed a fourth licensed person to take the test and learn.
So they schmoozed me into it. I said yes, because it was for the benefit of the kids. And then I started studying and it was hard. It was very difficult for me. But I studied and I practiced. And I think it was good for the kids to see their teacher learning. And I got my certification in the summer, June of 2021, and then we could become an official club and a group from there.
Aaron Chapin:
I'm sorry, before I let Jeff go on, because I've joked about it, what does HAM stand for?
Allen Lombardozzi:
It's amateur radio. I don't know what the age stands for.
Jeff Ney:
Okay. Okay. No, that's all right. So, Allen, this question is actually for you. Do you have a similar story? What inspired you to incorporate HAM radio technology into the program that you run?
Allen Lombardozzi:
So I was teaching at the high school at the time, and I was teaching a general science class at the time. Drew was like, "Hey, we got this equipment up here if you want to come up here and teach your kids about radio waves and electromagnetic currents." I was like, "Absolutely."
So I came up here, started looking into it, looked into it a little bit farther, found that through the ARRL, which is the American Radio Relay League, they offered a free program for teachers, it's the teacher institute, that you can go and learn how to deal with wireless technologies, not just amateur radio, but a lot of different wireless technologies.
So I went to Dayton, Ohio, got that, came back from that, talked to my curriculum director or actually Drew, and I said, "Hey, why don't we start a wireless technologies class here?" So I started a class here for the ninth through 12th graders on our wireless tech class.
So we were teaching them that and we started to kind of get it going a lot bigger. We did some weather balloon launches and the kids were like, "Let's go bigger. Let's look at talking to the International Space Station."
So, Elaine and Drew started the process, which was pretty extensive process to get approved by ARISS to get the contact in the books.
Jeff Ney:
You know what, Aaron? I was able to be up in Harbor Creek. I got an invitation from Allen to come up there and hang out with him. Now obviously, I walked in at the very last second. You had an auditorium filled with people.
You had the kids that were up on stage ready to rock and roll. You had a set script that each one of those students had to do. But walk us through the actual process of prepping and ultimately making contact with the International Space Station because as our listeners should know, there's a very limited window in which you can talk to the people on the ISS.
Elaine LaFuria:
I wanted to interject. When you do get this chance to do this project and you're selected, there's an application process. You're assigned an educational specialist from NASA and there is a ton of work.
So I was served as the communication in between. You have to have proof of student lessons and your engagement and how you're going to involve the community and news and parents and your entire school district. So that was all going on. So we split. I did the communication and also got the elementary students involved.
And then Allen can tell you about the enormous amount of equipment. And what makes us so unique is NASA offers this project every year to certain schools that can apply, but we had our own equipment, that's the students built, the antennas, all of that came from the students, and he can speak more to that.
Allen Lombardozzi:
So after we got approved, we had to go down to the Kennedy Space Center and spend a week down there with ARISS, which is the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program. And we had to learn how to use the equipment that they had, which we were like, we already have that, which was fine.
We actually ended up showing them how to use some of their equipment to get a little bit better communications, what they were doing with that. While we're down there, we also met some really great people.
One of the persons that we still stay in contact with, his name is Liam Kennedy. He's in charge of the, it's called the ISS Above. He has all the cameras that are on the space station. When we did our live talk with the ISS, he got in on California. He did that.
We did a live weather balloon launch. He was extremely impressed with that. He watched that from California, watched it live from the launch all the way through to the landing. So that was how that started. So when we get into the actual contact itself, you have about 10 minutes, give or take, to make that contact with the ISS.
The amount of time that you have, it depends on their location above the [inaudible 00:09:45]. It's a direct line of sight that the antennas have to do to get that and follow the horizon line. So it's a little bit more than just our visual line of sight. So as it was flying over top, it was about 10 minutes that we could actually have to go with the content.
Jeff Ney:
And it wasn't just contact with the ISS, you guys got to talk to somebody very important on the ISS. I was telling Aaron about it. Who was it that actually wanted to talk to your school?
Allen Lombardozzi:
So we talked to Commander Moguson, who was the leading astronaut of the ISS at the time when we were up there.
Aaron Chapin:
Wow. Yeah. Yeah, they got to talk to the big chief.
Jeff Ney:
That's crazy. Wow.
Aaron Chapin:
So tell us, what did your students have to learn about radio communication using Doppler shift and the whole antenna construction? What did they learn about this whole process?
Allen Lombardozzi:
So in the process, they first had to get their licenses. So we had training here through the Wattsburg Wireless Club. They came out and the assistance with the A RRL, we offered different programs. We gave them study tools. We gave them a website called HAMstudy.org to get on there.
If they took my wireless class, we're teaching that in the class also. So they had to get that to learn how to build the antennas. They had to research the size of antennas we needed, what would be the best antenna that we needed to use.
What we used was two horizontal dipoles, which I know you guys are like, what am I talking about? But there were two meters and 70 centimeters so we could communicate with us speaking on two meters. Then the repeater coming down from the ISS was on 70 centimeters.
So we had to teach them how to use the radios and do it in a split mode so that they could hear and transmit at the same time. They had to know the propagations of how and where to set the antenna so that they're going to work successfully. How to use rotors, the rotators so that they would follow it, how to actually follow the Doppler shift on the radio.
So, Aaron, if you remember, the kids had earplugs on and they were following. You could see if you're behind there, they're actually adjusting the dial on the radio. So as we were going, it was adjusting the frequency slightly. So as it got off shift, it was able to keep that with the best frequency that we could appear at the most declarative foot.
Elaine LaFuria:
I have a funny story for that. When they were setting up the antennas, there's these giant boxes they were bringing in. And I'm nervous because the equipment's expensive. And I have all these teenagers that are anxious. And so we open up the box and you know how there's those directions that fall out that no one ever wants to...
And I remember saying to the kids saying, "What do we do, Mr. Morrison, what do we do?" And he said, "Here's the manual. Go nuts with it." I'm like, who reads manual? And these 13, 14, 15 year olds read those manuals and figured out, I mean, we have adult supervision here that knew it and they figured it out and they put those things together.
And I was really amazed, even as long as I've been teaching. So my standard joke is now with all of them, there's the manual go nuts with it because they really did the ultimate on their own. And I witnessed it. And it really-
Aaron Chapin:
That's really impressive.
Elaine LaFuria:
... made me proud students. It's a very student-driven group. So we tried to put that into air. They steer the direction of the project. So I think it's why it's working so well.
Jeff Ney:
It really was amazing. And Allen took everybody that was there on a little field trip of their school. We climbed up to the roof, we saw where the antennas were. It's very impressive what they've built right there at the high school.
Aaron Chapin:
Those kids are making me feel like a bigger doofus than I already feel like.
Jeff Ney:
Well, that's a hard thing.
Aaron Chapin:
I had a TV in my bedroom and I had a coat hanger for an antenna. How was that?
Jeff Ney:
Well, and that's the whole thing, and I'm going to, I'm back to you guys because in today's day and age, we know that these students that we have in our schools, they want the technology, but they want it on their phones. They want to do this.
You're handing them a manual, a box of different things that they have to put together. What are you doing to motivate amateur radio licenses for these kids to want to continue this process? And what do you think has been some of the impacts to the success that your students have had with this?
Elaine LaFuria:
Well, I think if I talk first, then Allen can interject. But there are really a lot of youth programs out there that I did not know about until I started to become involved with the group. And there's some contests.
We went on a field trip to see some other groups of students and a gentleman that has a lot of antennas and so forth and a special interest. And I didn't realize that all these people were out there, particularly teens and teens love to connect.
So this one big radio contest is a big motivator. It's called the School Club Roundup, correct?
Allen Lombardozzi:
Correct.
Elaine LaFuria:
Can you talk a little more about that? I don't know all the details.
Allen Lombardozzi:
So the School Club Roundup, it's week long. The kids have up to hours in week time to make as many contacts as they can. So using Morris Code, using digital modes, using the radio itself and talking on different frequencies. We started off when we did that the first one a couple of years ago, we finished seventh.
The kids, they were like, "That's not good enough." So we finished seventh out of every high school in America that participates, there was 40 some high schools around the entire United States. The next time we did it, we ended up in fifth place. So they're like, "That's still not good enough." They wanted to go a little bit farther with that.
This last one we just finished up in October, we took second out of everybody in the country on that program for the Youth On The Air there when she was talking about this guy with this really big antennas.
So after the ISS contact, we were invited to Tim Duffy's house. He is the owner of DX Engine Gearing. He's the person who sells basically all of the equipment that amateur radio operators use all around the United States and the world.
We went to his house, which had 13, almost 14 acres of antennas. Let us come down to his basement, which was full of radios. We got to meet some really great individuals. There was a student, her name was Katie from a different school. She's the YOTA coordinator, the Youth On The Air coordinator for the eastern part of the United States.
So our kids got a good connection with her. These go around, it's not just here, but if kids want to go into electrical engineering or anything like that. The amateur radio license is the first step at MIT. That is what you take as the first course that you take.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, look at that. Oh my goodness.
Allen Lombardozzi:
So your kids already have a step-up and then some other students going to MIT.
Elaine LaFuria:
I think our youngest one was 12 when they took and passed it. And when you say it's like it is knowable thing. So gentlemen, you're never too old to learn something new. I thought at the end of my career I'm like, there is no way. But it's interesting. It's simple and it's science.
And I think it gets swallowed up by the current clicks and how it all works. But I think just speaking of that, kids motivate each other more than I can motivate them. So there are teen groups and youth groups, and once other school gets started, we'd be more than glad to help.
Aaron Chapin:
That's good.
Elaine LaFuria:
And then I think teens connecting with teens and something other than a screen is what we're all after. So I think that's one of the big motivators are they've sort of motivate each other.
Aaron Chapin:
As I said in the beginning, there was a feature on the Today Show. What's the response been from the community to this club and having this clip on The Today Show? How's everybody reacted
Allen Lombardozzi:
Locally, it was a huge thing here for Keery itself to be on a national TV program for something good.
Jeff Ney:
Other than snow.
Allen Lombardozzi:
As we're approaching almost 90 inches already for the year, usually we're about a hundred inches for the whole season. But it also opened up opportunities for us to get sponsor or people who donated money from all around the country. We had some individuals that gave some significant amount of money that really helped us improve our program.
Again, we were invited to go out to Tim Duffy's house or his facilities there. The next goal, the next step for our students, and they're working on the project now, is we want to launch CubeSat satellite into Orbit. So that's our next plan and that's what our kids are starting to work on now.
Elaine LaFuria:
And I think the biggest feather in our cap that it really could speak to how cool this story was, was reporter, Harry Smith, who just retired from NBC here. He did our piece in December, it aired. In January and February or March, he announced his retirement from NBC and he's going on to something else.
And when they did the review montage of all of his favorite stories, our kids were on there. He's petting elephants and climbing mountains and going everywhere. And he was so impressed by the club. So of course we're proud of our students. Our community is proud.
But for someone so notable to recognize what an unusually special project this was, and since then, now it's grown. I feel questions weekly from the community, other teachers, students who want to come and we're continuing to grow.
Jeff Ney:
That's awesome. So how long have you guys been doing this program?
Allen Lombardozzi:
So we're trying to figure that out. Four or five ish years. It's been going on.
Jeff Ney:
Okay. So are there any lessons that you think your students have taken away from the involvement with the ATG that extend beyond the classroom out into the community?
Have you seen any of your graduating seniors go on to school to do anything like this or get employment somewhere else to carry on this work?
Allen Lombardozzi:
We did have, one of our first graduating seniors went to Penn State Barrett and the engineering field. We still stay in contact with him. He came to the ISS contact. He's going for electrical or is it mechanical? One of either electrical or mechanical engineer.
We have another one down at Penn State, Maine for actuary science. He's going through with that. Some of our students coming up, they want to become doctors. They want to become engineering fields. So this can transmit into those kind of fields.
Elaine LaFuria:
We just had one was just admitted to Penn State's astrophysics.
Jeff Ney:
Oh my goodness.
Elaine LaFuria:
And he's a current senior this year. And we can't forget the communication field. I have several that are interested in broadcasting. We've gone to the 911 center. I took some to WICU.
So there's that whole field too that are into cameras, live stream, broadcasting, commentating. That has all stemmed. It wasn't anything we did for, it just grew from student interest.
Aaron Chapin:
You really are. They're shaping the future up there.
Jeff Ney:
Well, crying out loud, if there's communication, we might have a sponsor them here at PSEA.
Aaron Chapin:
We might be able to get the laptop picked up. It's amazing.
Jeff Ney:
It's humbling. Aaron, I'm telling you, when I came back, I was so energized to see what I saw with all of these students up there at Harbor Creek. I knew we had to share it with everyone.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, and I think a lot of people in Pennsylvania think, oh, things like this happen in the big school districts. Harbor Creek's not that big of a school district. I'm like, how many having many in your graduating class up there in Harbor Creek every year, roughly?
Allen Lombardozzi:
About 60.
Aaron Chapin:
That's amazing. And you're doing these big things up there that is awesome. And all you need is just a little bit of inspiration to do it.
Jeff Ney:
And you can hear the passion in their voices talking about it. It's absolutely wonderful.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, and that's what we love about this podcast. As we've done a lot of these features as we've started 2025, this is just another great example of inspiring our kids. They want to come to school. They want to learn because you're just coming up with things that interest them.
Jeff Ney:
Right?
Aaron Chapin:
It's not rocket science.
Jeff Ney:
Meet them where they are.
Aaron Chapin:
All right, guess what?
Jeff Ney:
Oh, is it pop quiz time?
Aaron Chapin:
It's pop quiz time. Hit it, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
All right, so pop quiz. So here's the question for both of you. What would be your dream field trip for the ATG program if you can go anywhere in the world? You can go anywhere in the world. Give me one spot of where you're going to go.
Elaine LaFuria:
Do we each get to answer?
Jeff Ney:
Yes. Each of you gets one answer. You got to make a quick though.
Elaine LaFuria:
My answer is Youth On The Air, it's in Denver this year. It's free or around a hundred bucks for a kid to attend in June, but they would need airfare to travel there. So that would be my spot for the group. It's in the United States and doable.
Jeff Ney:
Allen, how about you?
Allen Lombardozzi:
I would either say Wallowitz Space Launch Pad Station so that we can launch our cubes at satellite or actually go down back to the Kennedy Space Center area and get on a Space X launch pad and actually launch our cubes at satellite from there when we get that built.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, that's fantastic. We love what you're doing for our students. You're inspiring them, but you are such great examples of Pennsylvania educators.
You're going the extra mile for our kids and we really appreciate everything that you are doing. We just can't say enough great things. That's fantastic. And unfortunately, that does it for all of our time today. It went super fast. We could asked a whole lot more questions, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Oh wait, we could have.
Aaron Chapin:
We could have. We're out of time.
Jeff Ney:
We're out of time.
Aaron Chapin:
Our guests today have been Allen Lombardozzi and Elaine LaFuria. Wonderful to have both of you on the podcast. Thank you again.
Elaine LaFuria:
Thank you.
Allen Lombardozzi:
Thank you guys.
Aaron Chapin:
And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. Got some feedback for us, maybe you want some advice, got some questions? You know what we're asking for. You got to send us an email though at podcast at psea.org. Once again, I'm Aaron Chapin.
Jeff Ney:
And I'm Jeff Ney.
Aaron Chapin:
And you have been listening to Duty Free Lunch. Bye for now.
Voiceover:
You've been listening to Duty Free Lunch with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Visit psea.org/podcast to learn more and don't forget to subscribe and share. Paid for by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.