Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP)

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bystander
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Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP)

Post by bystander » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:31 pm

Historic Opportunity for Schools
Student Spaceflight Experiments Program

MISSION 1 TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
SSEP Program News | Jeff Goldstein | 2011 Jul 31
Private Sector Effort Offers Real Research Opportunity for Grade 5-16 Students aboard International Space Station, 50,000 Expected to Participate

Next Phase of Bold New STEM Education Program that Attracted National Attention with Student Experiments on Final Flights of Shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis, and Provided Participation to 30,700 Students


THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION (NCESSE) ANNOUNCES AN IMMEDIATE AND HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY FOR COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE U.S. TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FIRST STUDENT SPACEFLIGHT EXPERIMENTS PROGRAM (SSEP) MISSION TO AMERICA’S NATIONAL LABORATORY IN SPACE—THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS). THE PROGRAM IS ALSO OPEN TO ISS PARTNER NATIONS.

SSEP is a keystone Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education program launched as a U.S. National initiative in June 2010. More broadly, SSEP is about a commitment to student ownership in exploration, to science as journey, and to the joys of learning. For school districts—even individual schools—it provides an opportunity to implement a systemic, high caliber, and historic STEM education program that is tailored to a community’s strategic needs in STEM education.

Each participating community will be provided an experiment slot in a real microgravity research mini-laboratory scheduled to fly on the International Space Station (ISS) from March 30 to May 16, 2012. An experiment design competition in each community—engaging typically 300 to 1,000 students—allows student teams to design real experiments vying for their community’s reserved experiment slot on ISS. Additional SSEP programming leverages the flight design competition to engage the community, embracing NCESSE’s Learning Community Model for STEM education.

SSEP Mission 1 to ISS is currently the only SSEP flight opportunity available. SSEP missions on STS-134 (Shuttle Endeavour) and STS-135 (Shuttle Atlantis) have recently been completed, with 1,027 student team proposals submitted, and 27 SSEP experiments selected and flown—representing the 27 communities that participated in SSEP on the Space Shuttle.

SSEP Mission 1 to ISS is open to the following five categories of communities:
  • Pre-College (the core focus for SSEP) in the U.S., (grades 5-12), with a participating school district—even an individual school—providing stunning, real, on-orbit RESEARCH opportunities to their upper elementary, middle, and high school students
  • 2-Year Community Colleges in the U.S., (grades 13-14), where the student body is typically from the local community, providing wonderful pathways for community-wide engagement
  • 4-Year Colleges and Universities in the U.S., (grades 13-16), with an emphasis on Minority-Serving Institutions, where the program fosters interdisciplinary collaboration across schools and departments, and an opportunity for formal workforce development for science majors
  • Communities in the U.S. led by Informal Education or Out-of-School Organizations, (e.g., a museum or science center, a homeschool network, a boy scout troop), because high caliber STEM education programs must be accessible to organizations that promote effective learning beyond the traditional classroom
  • Communities in ISS Partner Nations: EU nations, Canada and Japan with participation through NCESSE’s Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education
Imagine your community participating in this—an adventure in real science on the space frontier, that students, teachers, and families will remember for a lifetime.

See SSEP Video

Read more ...

New Opportunity for Students to Reach for the Stars and Send an Experiment to the Space Station
Universe Today | Nancy Atkinson | 2011 Aug 10
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

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