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Michael Burch spent the past year searching the stars.
His mission? Find habitable planets.
Burch was not working for NASA nor billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX. He did it on his own accord. Well, sort of.
His star search was part of an Advanced Placement capstone project at Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD’s Saginaw High School, from which he graduated May 25. He received more than a grade for his work — it landed him a full scholarship to the STEM-focused Harvey Mudd College in California.
Space has always interested Burch, 18.
“I was that typical kid who wanted to be an astronaut when they grew up,” he said.
In the first grade, a teacher issued an assignment to Burch’s class: Draw what you want to be.
So, of course, he drew an astronaut. But he made another drawing, one of a computer programmer.
“I’ve teetered between them. Do I want to go into programming and computer science? Or do I want to go into physics?” Burch said.
Burch lights up as he discusses the intricacies of astrophysics and computer science.
He can tell you all about how planets orbit inside a solar system and how each variation informs researchers about the characteristics of each celestial body.
He’s at ease talking about programming languages like Python and C++.
At the heart of both astrophysics and computer science is an aspect Burch deeply cares about.
“It’s problem-solving,” he said. “You’re presented with a situation, and you have to come up with your own solution.”
As Burch settled into his project, he quickly realized an issue capstone teacher Greg Spurgeon warned his class about — time management.
Burch was so involved at Saginaw High that it would be easier to list what he wasn’t a member of. He was on the teams for soccer, cross country and track. He participated in an advisory council to the mayor, Gold Standard, Chickasaw Youth Clubs, National Honor Society, the calculus academic team and band, as he puts it, for a couple of years.
“That’s all I can think of off the top of my head,” Burch said, with a smile.
Even his class load was full. He took seven AP classes.
Managing his time was difficult at first, Burch said. He sat down one day, looked at his problem and decided his solution. He planned to go all in on the project, which required a 50-page research paper and presentation, in its early stages.
“I spent the whole eighth class period working on the project and then whenever I had spare time I spent it on the project,” Burch said.
His approach paid off.
“I actually finished well before any other students in the curriculum. I finished in January,” Burch said.
The due date? March.
Throughout the project, Burch forged a relationship with a professor at Harvey Mudd College. The professor helped him narrow his research topic and pointed him in the right direction.
That relationship was key for Burch, Spurgeon said. Spurgeon, the English department chair at Saginaw High, can walk students through the writing of a research paper and the presentation. He also can be a guide for more humanities-based projects.
“But I’m not very much of a scientific brain,” Spurgeon said, with a chuckle. “That specific relationship was tantamount to him receiving a full ride. It’s an amazing indiciation what the capstone program is possible of doing.”
The research was difficult, but Burch wanted to do it. He enjoyed the hours of poring through data and writing code to find habitable planets, even though his application can determine uninhabitable planets.
The work helped him get one step closer to achieving his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.
He isn’t picky about where a rocket takes him.
“Anywhere outside of Earth,” Burch said, smiling.
Jacob Sanchez is an enterprise journalist for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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