Ocean City Students Hope Astronauts Will Conduct Experiments | schools

Student nominees will have the unique opportunity to travel to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to witness the launch of their space protocols and materials, where astronauts will conduct their experiments.

The Ocean City School District (OCSD) is one of two New Jersey Grade K to 12 districts participating in the program after the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education approved its plan to involve a large part of the school community in SSEP.

The OCSD had already participated in SSEP's mission 6, to which about 100 students were involved in some aspects of the proposal writing process and designing the experience.

This year, the OCSD has almost tripled student participation by involving OC Life 21 high school students and Grade 8 students in a virtual "Space Science" enrichment course.

All participating students learned about microgravity through classroom activities and the process of designing experiences. And their teachers report that the experience has contributed to learning and growth beyond what they have learned from microgravity.

Maureen Baldini, a computer science teacher at OCIS, guided five groups of eighth grade students into the proposal writing process. "These students had never written a proposal of this nature before, so they had to learn the mechanisms along the way," she said. "They took up the challenge and did a great job of expressing their ideas."

Baldini encouraged his students to design experiments around simple topics that interested them. For example, one group proposed to compare the growth of crystals on Earth with that of the ISS, hypothesizing that microgravity would lead to larger crystals.

The high school students involved wrote their proposals at their own pace and David Uhrich and Daniel Weaver, OC Life 21 advisors, both physics teachers at OCHS, are impressed. They said the students took the initiative to learn not only about microgravity, but also about other topics in the proposed experiments.

"Our students have been acting as true research professionals," Weaver said. "They learned to learn for themselves by reading articles and talking to teachers and other researchers."

A student who proposed to study bone growth in microgravity exchanged more than 40 emails with a professor at Rutgers University. Another who wishes to study the decomposition of urea in space has visited the laboratory of a local microbiologist at Shore Memorial.

Teachers at the Atlantic Cape Community College also serve as valuable partners for the OCSD in support of this SSEP program. They are reviewing and currently noting approved proposals and will assist the district in selecting three to be sent to the National Stage 2 Review Committee, which will make the final selection.

"Many of our students' initial proposals were too complicated for the limited space on the ISS and the limited time that astronauts will have to devote to experiments," Uhrich said. "The students refined their ideas to make them conform to the parameters, which was another concrete learning experience for them. This is exactly what real scientists do. "

"This whole process requires self-directed learning and nurtured students' critical thinking, problem-solving, seamless navigation in a transdisciplinary landscape, communication and teamwork," said Lauren Gunther, Director. of the OCSD program.

"We appreciate the support of our administrators, our board and our teachers, especially those who mentor our students, as we offer this valuable learning experience to a large number of our students. district, "she added.

"I encouraged participation in another SSEP mission this year because the experience allowed our students to reach the stars, which we figuratively encourage them to do every day in the district," he said. said DPSC Superintendent Kathleen Taylor, Ed.D. "This is another example of the unique opportunities we offer our students, which helps them gain a competitive advantage after graduation."

Students from Ocean City Elementary School from kindergarten to grade three and those from OCIS from grade four to grade eight also have the opportunity to participate in the SSEP program by designing a patch for the chosen experience.

Each school will hold a contest to choose a winning design and the district will send the two winning patches with its experience in the space. In addition, third graders design and build their own LEGO space station, requiring them to budget, research, and plan for an optimal design that meets defined parameters before building and testing. The project page provides additional details: https://www.octechlab.org/iss-project

About the student space flight experiments program

The Student Space Flight Experiment Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) 501c3 in the United States and the Arthur C. Institute. Clarke for the spatial education of international communities. It is possible through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, who are working with NASA under a Space Act agreement in connection with the use of the International Space Station as a national laboratory.