I came across it when I was surfing for random tidbits about SpaceX’s launch this week and their plans for the future … as it turns out, in addition to all of the regular supplies being shuttled up to the ISS by Dragon, the craft is also carrying a number of science experiments created by grade school (and above) science students to give classrooms a unique opportunity to test the effects of microgravity without ever having to leave the comfort of Earth themselves! The program actually started two years ago and included the last two flights of the shuttle program, and is now continuing with SpaceX’s and other crafts as well to transport these experiments that kids are creating in their classrooms up to the space station for actual astronauts to complete and then send the results back to Earth for the kids to analyze!
I mean, talk about an awesome way to suck kids into science class – not only are there a myriad of new ways with the Internet to monitor activities on the ISS itself and talk about them in class, but just think – teachers can even see their students enrolled in this competition to design something of their own to send out into space … I would’ve eaten something like that up when I was 12 years old. 😮