A student team from Texarkana isd has designed microgravity Experiment set to launch from Kennedy Space Center for operation by the astronauts on the International Space Station 250 miles above the Earth. SpaceX-31 is launching from Launch Complex 39A, the same pad from which all the Apollo missions to the Moon launched.
Each fall, all fifth-grade students at Martha and Josh Morriss Mathematics & Engineering Elementary School and all sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade Texas Middle School students enrolled in Science Honors spend six weeks learning about microgravity experimental design. During this time, they develop proposals that compete for inclusion in that year’s Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission to the International Space Station. The top three projects from Texarkana ISD are submitted to the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) for consideration by the SSEP National Step 2 Review Board.
A microgravity experiment developed last year by a group of sixth graders at Texas Middle School—who were then students at Morriss—is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on November 4, 2024, following a rigorous selection process through the SSEP. Titled “Will Normal Strength Concrete Keep Its Structure in Microgravity?”, this experiment was created by the 2023-24 Morriss fifth graders Lynnley Galloway, Lizzy LaGrone, Issac Steel, and Cooper Wood, under the supervision of Mrs. Marie Goodwin.
“We are very proud of our students. It is a huge accomplishment for their experiment to be selected from so many SSEP submissions. This not only highlights their hard work and creativity but also inspires all of our students to dream big and explore the possibilities offered by careers in science, technology, education, and mathematics (STEM). The success of these students powerfully illustrates the idea that you just never know how far your education can take you,” said Dr. Doug Brubaker, Superintendent of Texarkana ISD.
Texarkana ISD is one of 37 communities across three countries (the USA, Ukraine, and Canada) participating in Mission 18 of the SSEP program. This initiative allows students to design and propose actual microgravity experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station.
About the SSEP:
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program [or SSEP] is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks LLC, which is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement to utilize the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.
