Author: alex2000

January 27, 2014

We’re Going to Space!!!!!

Our students at Awty International School in 5th grade and 8th grade are participating in the NDC Pilot Challenge. CASIS, the Center for the Advancement of Science and Space, manages the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory. Our class was chosen to participate in the program where we are designing and engineering our own experiment. And then…WE WILL SEND IT TO SPACE!

5th Grade CASIS National Design Challenge

Mrs.Smith shares information with her students about the Ardulab (above)
Leila Shadfar takes a go at pouring her agar plate! (side)

We brainstormed many different ideas for our project, but our class kept looking at different medical ideas. With the help of Dr. Brian Stephens at UHCL, we did some research, and realized that yeast cells are commonly studied in space as they most closely relate to human cells and are often used for medical research. We plan to test the differences in yeast growth and cell structure. We will also monitor carbon dioxide emissions to compare if more/less Co2 is given off in the process of cellular respiration while in a microgravity environment. Our own Ms. Ann Harper has been helping our students pour the yeast plates and streak the yeast. We are learning new skills each time we work with her. As Leila Shadfar (Yeast Specialist) remarked, “It is cool (pouring and streaking the plates) because it feels like the project is depending on you!”

January 27, 2014

We are currently working on engineering our ardulab and have been working with our mentors at Texas A&M University. Our class will engineer both the hardware and software for our camera, lights, temperaturehumidity sensor, and the Carbon dioxide sensor. “We are also designing our own grid measurement system for the yeast plate,” stated Maurits Deman (Engineer and Design Oversight). This has been a very exciting adventure for our class. As Bella Silverman (Camera) says, “I love working in the camera group and it’s an awesome opportunity to participate in the NDC Pilot Challenge!”

5th Grade CASIS National Design Challenge

Mrs. Smith’s class with the A&M Mentors (above)

The flight will launch on Orbital 2, May 1st 2014. You can keep up to date by checking out our status page below.
http://ndcpilot.weebly.com/jessika-smith.html
5th Grade CASIS Community Outreach and Publicity
Robert Smith, Ava Casey, Lauren Wade, Navreena Kaur, Zeynep Deliormanli, Marie Kourouma, Jacques Brock, Natalia Rylance