Garvey School District Rosemead, CA
Invitation to Launch a Space Station Program at Your School!
(Partnership with magnitude.io/ and ISS Above)
Space Station Program
Schools in the Los Angeles County will have the opportunity to partner with two STEM education agencies, magnitude.io/ and ISS Above, to launch a Space Station program at their schools. Students, using an electronic device (“ISS Above”) that brings the Space Station to the TV, will be able to see live views of Earth from external cameras and discover about the above earth international laboratory.
Students will have the opportunity to engage in exciting projects, such as:
— ExoLab, a biology experiment in the microgravity environment on the International Space Station.
— CanSat that utilizes High Altitude Balloon & High Power Rocket Launch to conduct atmospheric measurement
Please join us in person to learn about this exciting and affordable Space Program.
Program Introduction Event
Time:
1:00 pm / Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019
Location:
Rice (Eldridge) Elementary School “Home of the Rockets”
2150 Angelus Ave, Rosemead, CA 91770
PHONE: (626) 307-3348
| Pre-Activity Program (optional) | |
| 1:00 – 1:30 | PicoHAB launch with students |
| Program Introduction | |
| 2:00 – 3:30 | Introduction |
| Integration with NGSS | |
| Project: ExoLab & ISS Above | |
| Project: CanSat | |
| Q & A |
Join us…
What is an ExoLab?
ExoLab is an experiment platform that brings together classrooms and the International Space Station in a collaborative investigation of the effects of microgravity on living things. ExoLab is designed with lesson sequence for 6th – 8th grade based on the NGSS. The International Space Station (ISS) is home to advanced microgravity research for academia and industry. Working with school districts across the United States along with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), magnitude.io/ seeks to provide an extraordinary exobiology experience mapped to accepted local science standards while dramatically reducing the cost to access experiments in space.
The experiments are initiated on the ISS in accordance with resupply missions. This allows for multiple experiments per year, giving options on when to align the classroom experiment with the ISS experiment. Students look for relationships between the environmental conditions, including the effect of microgravity on the growth of living things in general.
Duration of Experiments
The current experiment launched on July 25, 2019 aboard SpaceX CRS-18. Following installation the International Space Station, for 28 days in microgravity and returned in the SpaceX Dragon capsule on August 27, 2019
The next mission is scheduled for February or March of 2020.
Earth Application
Soil microflora are critical to converting nutrients into forms that can be absorbed and utilized by plants. The Microbial Nitrogen Fixation experiment informs our understanding of nitrogen fixation responses of selected microbes in microgravity, with potential to improve our understanding of the impact of climate change on soil productivity.
Flight Protocols
ExoLab-6 takes place in a sealed 2U CubeLab populated with eight petri dishes. Two species of nitrogen fixing bacteria are included in the investigation, each on three petri dishes. The remaining two petri dishes are inoculated with E. coli to serve as a control. The CubeLab is turned over 3 days prior to launch for cold stow to deter growth. The experiment runs at ambient conditions aboard the ISS, and imagery and sensor data is collected on regular intervals. After experiment completion, the CubeLab is returned in cold stowage (4°C) for further ground analysis.
Classroom Protocols
Students will run ground analogs to the Flight 6 experiment in two parts, first with Rhizobia, followed by Azotobacter. Each trial will consist of four petri dishes. Students will document and share observations with the ExoLab network.
Classroom Involvement
Ground versions of the CubeLab, known as the ExoLab, are distributed across more than 150 schools in the United States, Canada, South Africa and Germany. These schools collaborate, through the magnitude.io/ platform, in the investigation of the effects of the microgravity environment. Students are able to compare the experiment onboard the International Space Station alongside their own classroom lab, as well as the labs in other schools in the network.