Launching From the Classroom to Careers: Students Gain Valuable Skills Through Research on the Space Station

Launching From the Classroom to Careers: Students Gain Valuable Skills Through Research on the Space Station
by Diana Rugg for ISS National Lab
Houston TX (SPX) Nov 16, 2024

Before taking part in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), Emma Randall, a recent graduate of Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona, said the most leadership experience she had was heading a small group project in English class. After a year of working on her SSEP project with classmate Ella McTaggart, she entered college with strong leadership skills and first-hand experience writing a research proposal and collaborating on a scientific investigation. McTaggart also gained valuable skills, learning to communicate with professionals, manage her time, and adjust an experiment through trial and error.

But as Randall and McTaggart watched their research launch to the International Space Station (ISS), the experience became real. They were no longer just students in a classroom, but scientists conducting innovative research in space - and that's what SSEP is all about.

"The whole idea of education is to prepare our students for the real world," said Jeff Goldstein, center director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), which runs SSEP. Goldstein explained that for educators to be successful in fostering a robust future workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), students need hands-on experience performing tasks from those careers. "A very effective way to do that is to bring professional experiences into the classroom and ask our students to be scientists and engineers right now."

The Mesa Public Schools team was one of 39 student projects from 38 communities across the U.S. and Canada taking part in SSEP's 18th mission to the space station. SSEP is an ISS National Laboratory educational partner program aiming to equip the next generation of scientists and engineers by integrating the scientific research process into the classroom. Mission 18 launched onboard SpaceX's 31st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission for NASA earlier this week.

"I am so proud of our team," McTaggart said. "It has ultimately impacted me so much with life and academic skills that I wouldn't have otherwise."

SSEP began in 2009 when Goldstein and Jeff Manber, founder of Nanoracks (now part of Voyager Space), came up with the idea of using access to space to create a STEM education initiative. The two sketched out the structure of SSEP on a napkin and brought it to life the next year. For the program, student experiments are carried out in "mini laboratories" called Mixstix, which are flexible tubes that can be clamped to form three compartments to keep substances apart until they are ready to be mixed in space.

Participating communities - each with 100 or more students for elementary, middle, and high school programs and at least 30 for college-level programs - engage in a formal microgravity science curriculum and then break into smaller teams to create research proposals. Teams within a community compete against each other to earn the flight slot for their community. For Mission 18, SSEP received nearly 1,900 proposals, which were narrowed to 110 finalists. A review board then selected the top experiment from each community to launch into space.

Goldstein said this process allows hundreds of students from each community to be immersed in real experimental design and an authentic research competition, just as professional scientists would compete for research assets. In all, more than 14,000 students in grades 5-16 took part in SSEP Mission 18.

"The idea is to build a wider awareness and recognize that everybody participating in that community has been invited into America's space program," said Goldstein.

For instance, the Mesa Public Schools team involved students in grades 4, 5, 9, and 12 in three different schools: Zaharis Elementary School, Red Mountain Ranch Elementary School, and Red Mountain High School. The younger students researched microgravity to come up with ideas for projects. High school students in Red Mountain's STEM Pathways programs designed experiments based on the ideas, and then ninth graders honed their technical writing skills by putting the proposals on paper. Mentors from Honeywell Aerospace reviewed the proposals and offered feedback. More than 1,500 students in the Mesa Public Schools took part in the process that resulted in the final project chosen for flight.

The winning team, which includes Randall and McTaggart, will study Staphylococcus (epidermidis), a type of infectious bacteria, in space. The team will evaluate the growth of biofilms, clusters of bacteria that grow together on a surface, in microgravity to see how it differs from biofilm growth on Earth. Results could shed light on how to better protect astronauts from infectious bacteria in space.

Also on this mission is a project from a team at Mountain View Middle School in Lamont, California. The team originally wanted to study the germination and growth of lettuce seeds in space because lettuce could provide nutrients to astronauts during space missions. However, when the students discovered that lettuce seeds cannot grow without light, they switched to spinach, which is highly nutritious and does not need light for germination. The team stayed after school for six weeks to test water, light, seed count, and soil conditions that would provide the best growing conditions for their spinach seeds in space.

A team of 10th graders at Hillcrest High School in Sandy, Utah, also learned to be flexible with their experiment, which examines how well two types of nematodes are able to infect an insect host (mealworms) in microgravity. These eco-friendly worms are used widely in agricultural pest control and may be a practical solution for controlling insect pests when growing crops in space. The students used several rounds of trial and error to find the right mix of sand, water, and air to use in the limited enclosure of the Mixstix to allow the mealworms to survive so the experiment could be completed.

Another team of students in Pickerington, Ohio, is investigating how well Liquid I.V., a powdered drink mix, hydrates plant cells in space. The students hypothesize that Liquid I.V. could help keep astronauts better hydrated during spaceflight, where there is a limited amount of water. Meanwhile, a five-student team from the iForward Public Online school in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, will observe the growth and development of brine shrimp - a food source for several fish species and an environmental monitoring tool - in space. The team hypothesizes that brine shrimp, which cope well with changing environmental conditions, will grow bigger in microgravity.

Several participants have shared how SSEP led them to consider STEM careers, get into their college of choice, and even earn scholarships. Elizabeth Miller, a ninth grader in Mesa, Arizona, said the process has transformed her education. "It has greatly strengthened my research, writing, presentation, teamwork, and leadership skills," said Miller. "I have loved being introduced into the world of STEM in such a fun and exciting way. I am so grateful that I had this opportunity."

In Grantsburg, Wisconsin, ninth grader Victor Morris said, "Participating in the program gives us a feel of what being an actual scientist is like. Sending brine shrimp to space makes having a career as a space engineer seem a lot closer and a lot more realistic."

Goldstein says one of the common things he hears from teachers that participated in SSEP is that it was the most challenging but most rewarding STEM education program they had ever done. "We also hear that they're often stunned to see what their students are capable of doing if we just let them spread their wings," he said. "Through SSEP, we see that students change their view of what science and STEM actually are, and many students say, 'Yes, I want to consider this as a career.'"