by KIM HILSENEBCK
Preparations are underway for students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program at Hays CISD to have one of their experiments conducted at the International Space Station – what’s being called America’s newest National Laboratory – later this year.
The opportunity is part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, or SSEP – a national Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiative that gives typically 300-plus students across a community the ability to design and propose real microgravity experiments to fly in low Earth orbit.
SSEP was launched in June 2010 by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education in strategic partnership with NanoRacks, LLC.
Lori Shultz, a fifth grade STEM teacher at Carpenter Hill Elementary, is one of eight such teachers at Hays CISD. The STEM program is currently running at Carpenter Hill and at Pfluger Elementary and has about 200 students. The interim director is Tim Pearsall, who took over after the recent departure of Ellen Lyon, former superintendent Jeremy Lyon’s wife.
Shultz’s colleagues at Carpenter Hill are Michelle McCoy, Tavia Hrabovsky and Jamie Cole. The STEM teachers at Pfluger are LaVada Ferguson, Krista Milan, Christine Coats and Emily Repp.
Shultz spoke recently with the Hays Free Press about how she got involved with SSEP and how it will impact the students, the district and the community.
“In November, we found out about a live webcast for our students to watch,” she said. “Students from a school were interviewing astronauts at the International Space Station in real time about their experiments and other topics.”
Her students were fascinated. So was Shultz.
She contacted the program director, Jeff Goldstein, to learn more and find out how the Hays CISD STEM students could get involved.
Goldstein told Shultz that the district would need closer to 400 students involved in order to get funding.
“It costs about $21,500 to send one experiment into space,” she said.
Goldstein takes care of fundraising, according to Shultz, so the STEM team can concentrate on their scientific experiment. Still, she said the district has to provide him with a list of potential sponsors.
Ideally, businesses in the local community are ideal funders of a project of this nature, Shultz said. Due to the time frame, however, Goldstein recommended asking larger businesses as small companies would be less likely to be able to contribute in higher amounts. That means he would need more companies to donate.
“The average donation should be about $3,000,” wrote Goldstein in a letter to SSEP participants.
To meet the requirements for the number of district students, Shultz contacted Katie Campbell and Aaron Higdon, GTT teachers at Wallace and Dahlstrom middle schools, respectively. GTT stands for Gateway to Technology. Shultz said Campbell and Higdon were very receptive and a plan was set.
With those teachers on board, Shultz now had the required number of students. She then wrote the implementation plan to submit to SSEP.
And then – a glitch. Goldstein told her the program is only for students in fifth grade and above. But the STEM students at Hays CISD includes fourth graders.
“I explained to Dr. Goldstein that our fourth graders are not your typical, every day fourth graders,” Shultz said. “I told him how these kids were tested for the STEM magnet school program.”
She must have presented a compelling argument because Hays CISD is the only school district in the nation to have fourth graders included in the SSEP experiment.
What happens next?
Shultz said the students involved in the program are how grouped into teams of five. Each one will submit a potential experiment.
“I have Level 1 judges who are other STEM teachers and professors from UT Austin and Texas State University,” Shultz said.
That panel will submit the top three ideas to Goldstein. His level 2 judges will then select the final project that will represent Hays CISD on the experiment at the International Space Station.
The chosen experiment will fly this fall. And students from the STEM and GTT program will have the opportunity to talk with the astronauts conducting the research on their behalf.
“Our kids will get to speak live with astronauts and ask questions, get explanations of their experience and interact with them,” Shultz said. “It’s very exciting.”
