Student Experiments on Space Shuttle Endeavour Flight Attract National Attention in Bold New STEM Education Program. Private Sector Effort Also Offers Potential New Space Shuttle Atlantis Opportunity for 100,000 Students to Participate.
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), launched June 2010 by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in partnership with NanoRacks LLC, has selected 16 grade 5-12 student microgravity science experiments to fly on STS-134, the final flight of Shuttle Endeavour currently set to launch April 2011.
Responding to a national announcement of opportunity by NCESSE in June 2010, 16 communities joined the program. Each community was provided an experiment slot in a private sector microgravity research laboratory flying on Endeavour, and which had also flown on seven past Shuttle missions.
An experiment design competition in each community, open to up to 3,200 students, allowed student teams to design real experiments vying for their reserved slot on this historic flight. Additional SSEP programming leverages the flight design competition to engage the community, embracing a Learning Community Model for STEM education.
To read more, download NCESSE New Educational Program pdf