Nueva Students Become Scientists: Space Academy tests limits as students craft an experiment sent to the International Space Station. BY
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S IX T H - GR A D E
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What’s no bigger than a shoebox, was designed by Nueva students, and could make space travel safer and more comfortable in the future? A: AN EXPERIMENT SENT INTO SPACE THAT MEASURES HOW HOT AIR MOVES IN A MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENT. The experiment was the work of the Experiments in Space Academy, a weekly elective that ran from August 2016 through March 2017 for students in the fifth to eighth grades. The culmination came on June 3, when the experiment was launched into space by SpaceX along with a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Jenko Hwong, a Nueva parent, brought this opportunity to us through the Quest Institute, an organization that, among other endeavors, has helped launch more than 100 student-designed experiments into space. This was a perfect fit with our sixth-grade science curriculum, which includes a lot of space and astronomy. Together, we cosponsored the work of ten students, who became known as Team Microvection. Their efforts spanned not only the science curriculum, but incorporated social-emotional learning, design thinking, and plenty of hands-on construction. “When I first heard about Space Academy, it was surreal to think that we could actually send something into space,” said Alexa W. “I thought only NASA engineers got to do that.” Once, that was true. But now, students’ experiments can be placed on top of a rocket, launched, and orbited to the ISS, where astronauts dock with the spacecraft and load the cargo into the space station. Once in place, the experiment runs and beams data back down to earth. This presents an incredible opportunity for everyone involved, students and teachers alike.
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