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FEBRUARY 26, 2014
Science and space loving students Ten schools across the Kamloops-Thompson School District are waiting for their chance to send a science experiment to space. The experiment must fit into a shoebox-sized container and be something an astronaut can do in the microgravity atmosphere in the International Space Station. The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), part of the National Centre for Earth and Space Science Education, is an oppourtunity for students in grades five to seven to submit an experiment of their own design and have their procedures carried out by real NASA astronauts. Bert Edwards Science and Technology School principal, Paul Hembling, has to raise $25,000 to pay for the space trip. “The 25,000 is the cost to launch the shoebox and to put on the international space station,” comments Paul. “We are at 12,500 US right now; about half way there. We have until middle of March when those funds are committed.” Paul submitted an implementation plan, what the local committee would look like and how the winning experiments would be chosen to the SSEP in order to be entered into the program. If the money is raised, in March teachers in groups of three to five will
start to develop a micro gravity experiment. There are about 18 classrooms that are ready to be involved to create an experiment, a proposal and instructions for the astronauts. Students are being asked what they would like to know and how they will create an experiment to find out. Kamloops is only the second school district in Canada to ever be accepted into the program. “If there is a successful experiment chosen by the SSEP, there will most likely be a launch in fall 2014,” says Paul. “It will be launched into space for a six week period and the results and
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Paul Hembling needs your help to get the SSEP program into Kamloops schools.
experiment will be returned to the students. How cool is that?!” Students will have to figure out how things will work in space. To see how zero gravity will affect things that we know on Earth. In years past Silly Putty was sent up. Students wanted to know the effect of microgravity on the formation of Silly Putty and how the characteristic of
that Silly Putty differs from that Silly Putty made on Earth. “This has got to be the best hands on learning experience I have ever seen and I have been in education for 18 years,” adds Paul. The science loving students of Kamloops need local support to get enough money to try to send the winning science experiment into space.
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Students haven’t been involved in the program yet. “They don’t know a lot as we need to make sure that we have the money to do this,” says Paul. “We are holding our breaths right now. Over the next two weeks, I am reaching out to the community. If this flies, pun intended, it will be a great hands on learning ex- continued on page 2
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