We are happy to report that finalist proposals from all 16 SSEP participating communities have been received and accepted by Dr. Harri Vanhala, SSEP National Program Manger, and as of 12:00 noon ET today, have been forwarded to the SSEP National Step 2 Review Panel.
On Monday and Tuesday November 22 and 23, 2010, the panel will review all finalist proposals submitted by student teams from across the SSEP Community Network. The panel will divide into 4 teams, each comprised of both researchers and science educators, with each team responsible for review of proposals from 4 SSEP communities.
The winning proposals that will move on to flight safety review will be selected by November 26, 2010.
To all the student teams across the nation that have worked so hard on their SSEP proposals—please know you are all winners. This program is first and foremost about giving you the experiences of real researchers, and, through SSEP, that’s what you have been. It’s been challenging, it’s been exciting, it’s required critical thinking—and that’s science. To all teachers and administrators that have worked so hard to navigate the landscape of a real science competition with their students, we know this has been challenging for you too. And it is now time to savor the moment. Every one of the 16 SSEP communities has put forward finalist proposals, and we’re about to find out which team from each of your communities will be given the opportunity to move on to flight safety review, and fly their experiment aboard the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. So step back, realize what you’ve done, recognize this is all way cool, and gather everyone in your classrooms together and give each other a big round of applause!
Once the winning teams are selected, we invite each community to rally around their team and be part of the adventure. WE ARE NOW EXACTLY 100 DAYS FROM FLIGHT OF ENDEAVOUR!
If this is getting you just a tad excited, leave a comment below, and let other readers of this post get excited too.
Finally, the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education is both proud and excited to introduce the 17 members of the SSEP National Step 2 Review Panel for the STS-134 flight opportunity. We have just added a web-page for the Panel under the Teams page at this SSEP Program website (http://ssep.ncesse.org).
Here is the direct link to the SSEP National Step 2 Review Panel Page: http://ssep.ncesse.org/team/the-ssep-step-2-review-board-for-sts-134/
The SSEP on-orbit research opportunity is enabled through NanoRacks LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.
