I was involved in the Young Astronauts Program, Space Camp, and other
NASA-related outreach programs growing up. Exploring space has always
been my driving passion and I am fortunate to have had the support from
my family and my teachers to pursue that dream.
One of the
reasons why I’m proud to be a part of the ISS National Laboratory
Office team now is our education and outreach mission. It’s important
to me to help inspire America’s youth to reach for the stars, just as I
was. I’m excited that we’re actually sponsoring a national science
competition, Kids In Micro-G!, in partnership with Disney and Pixar,
where the selected experiment proposals will actually be done on the
International Space Station by our astronauts.
If
you have a child, grandchild, niece, nephew, godchild, or just a
special kid you know in 5th through 8th grade, I encourage you to go to
the website above and share this opportunity with them. I know there
are teachers who read this blog, so I especially challenge you to take
the lead and help your students submit entries.
The premise
is pretty simple. Design a science experiment where the results in the
microgravity environment of the International Space Station will be
observably different than here on Earth. You’ll have to do it from a
list of on-orbit supplies and in no more than 10 minutes.
Buzz Lightyear watches Swedish fish “swim” in a ball of water on the ISS
I
can’t wait to see all the creative proposals America’s teachers and
youth are able to come up with. You can guarantee that I’ll be sitting
on console watching when the experiments are performed, too! This is
an amazing chance to be a part of something special. Take it and have
fun with it.
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