Skokie 7th grader wins national prize for designing space station for travel to Mars

SKOKIE, Ill. - Emilia Dobek traces her interest in space and the universe back to third grade when she and her father watched a blood moon - a total lunar eclipse - on the roof of their Skokie house.

Now a seventh grader at East Prairie Elementary School, Dobek recently won the national Discovery Education Lockheed-Martin Beyond Challenge by designing a space station for traveling to Mars.

"My dad and I went to the roof of the house to watch the blood moon," she recalled. "It was really interesting