Einstein, Highland Terrace students to design experiments for space

Photo courtesy SSEP

Two schools in the Shoreline School District, Einstein Middle School and Highland Terrace Elementary School, have been selected to participate in Mission Two to the International Space Station through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program,  (SSEP).

The Student Spaceflight Experiment is a national educational program undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC. One student experiment from either Einstein or Highland Terrace will be chosen from a field of over 100 completed scientific proposals from to be performed on the International Space Station this fall. Shoreline is one of only 11 districts nationwide to be chosen for this program.

The Spaceflight Program uses a commercial spaceflight payload, which will contain the student experiments, and will be placed aboard ferry vehicles for transfer to the International Space Station. The student experiment flight opportunity is enabled through NanoRacks LLC, which is in partnership with NASA under a formal Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a national laboratory.

All Einstein eighth graders and Highland Terrace sixth graders will participate in a competition between now and the end of April in which they will work in teams of four to five students to design an experiment that answers the question, "What phenomenon associated with a physical, chemical, or biological system would I like to explore with gravity turned off for a period of time?"

A committee of science professionals from the community will evaluate the proposal and select three to be sent to the National Center for Earth and Space Science for the final evaluation where one of our proposals will be selected. Then the students will prepare the winning proposal in the specially designed NanoRack Mini-lab kit and send to Houston for launch.

Shoreline teachers hope to collaborate with local scientific community. Teachers and administrators from both schools are also supporting students. Stephanie Clark is principal of Einstein Middle School and Mike VanOrden is principal of Highland Terrace Elementary. The Einstein teachers are Ellen Smith, Mary Thurber and Ryan Paulhamus and the Highland Terrace teachers are Peggy Nordwall and Dennis Griner.

This truly an out-of-this world experience for these young students and staff and was made possible by the support of the Shoreline Community, including the Shoreline Public Schools Foundation, the Knossos Foundation, the, the Wong family, Tiia-Mai Redditt, Einstein PTSA and Highland Terrace PTSA.

Parents and community members with expertise in science and research are invited to consider helping mentor students with their proposals or participate on the evaluation committee. The schools would like to provide students with contacts of professionals in various fields of science to ask questions as they develop their experiments. If you can help please contact Mike Van Orden or Stephanie Clark.

For more information about this amazing learning opportunity visit the program's website.