There are many educational programs and contests at the local and national level to challenge students (Junior High, High School, and College) in science as it relates to aerospace. Some programs have students building just rockets, others rockets and payloads, and others the payload itself. Many are conducted very formally to give the student the experience of a real private or government technology project. Visit the pages under this heading for a listing and link to many of those projects.
The AIAA OC Rocketry currently (2010-2011) has teams in TARC and the Student Launch Initiative – information about those teams can be found on other pages in this web site.