High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) is a cutting edge, nationally recognized program of education that provides students in middle school and high school the opportunity to design and build equipment used by the human space program, on the International Space Station and Moon to Mars. Currently there are more than 500 students at 14 high schools, and 2 middle schools, in Colorado participating in programs for HUNCH.

HUNCH provides students the opportunity to create, and build items for NASA through the following programs: Engineering Design and Prototyping, Biomedical Science, Sewn Flight Articles, Culinary, Software Development, Video and Media, Flight Configuration, and Hardware Manufacturing. Since it’s inception in 2002, high school students have designed, or built, more than 3100 articles that have flown to space. Students working for NASA learn real-world skills that prepare them for careers in multiple fields of employment.

Colorado also has the largest NASA HUNCH Centers of Excellence in the Country. Jefferson County Public Schools, JEFFCO, became a CoE in 2022, and currently has 8 high schools, and 2 middle schools particpating in multiple HUNCH programs. JEFFCO hosts both the annual preliminary design review, and critical design review. JEFFCO's CoE also provides working relations for the Colorado region with Colorado School of Mines, Red Rocks Community College, and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.

If you would like to learn more about HUNCH, please contact the Colorado HUNCH

Mentor listed on this website.