NEW INFORMATION IN GREEN (added 3/30/11)
We recognize that teachers are the critical driver for student participation in the SSEP. We also recognize this is not your typical science fair experiment approach to experimental design. So here are some tips on how to proceed—
1. Navigating this Website for Experiment Design Information
This website may seem like a lot, but it’s pretty simple to use. Most of the pages provide information on the larger SSEP landscape—the community wide experiment design competition, the community programming that leverages the excitement of that competition, and if interested, how a community participates. To gain an understanding of this larger landscape, you just carefully read the the Home page, and the About SSEP page.
However, teachers need to concentrate on getting students moving on experiment design. So here is the key. All the information that specifically addresses the design of student experiments—how teachers and students should begin framing experiments, the specifications of the MDA mini-lab that needs to be used, the experiment constraints imposed by the mini-lab and its operation on the Space Shuttle, and the suite of resources provided to teachers and students—are all accessed through a careful read of the Teacher and Student Proposer Resources page (the link labeled “Resources” in the top navigation banner.) Think of it as your Grand Central Station for SSEP experiment design in the classroom!
2. A Proposed List of Tasks and Activities for SSEP Launch and Management in the Classroom (provided in a reasonable order)
a. To get up to speed with SSEP experiment design, a teacher should first read the Teacher and Student Proposer Resources page, and as directed, explore the links on that page. (Hint: grab a cup of coffee or tea in advance of moving forward with this first step!) Also know that we can set up Skype videoconferences for groups of teachers to address any questions.
b. Provide an overview of the SSEP program to your class: e.g., the goal of community-wide engagement in real science, and an understanding of the Flight Experiment Design Competition—a web page that you might want to project on a screen with an LCD projector.
c. Have your students read through the Designing the Flight Experiment page, then discuss it thoroughly as a class making sure to brainstorm the experiment examples. Consider projecting the Designing the Flight Experiment page on a screen with an LCD as you discuss it. This page will get students (and teachers) in the right frame of mind for experimental design.
d. Get you students really jazzed by taking them to the following pages:
Communities Participating in SSEP on STS-134, the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour
Student Experiments Selected for Flight on Endeavour
SSEP In the News: media coverage from around the nation—this is going to happen in YOUR community!
In Their Own Words: thoughts on the experience from participants on the STS-134 flight
Mission Patches flying on Endeavour: your community will fly one too!
e. Have the class read the Microgravity Science Background and Microgravity Experiment Case Studies documents (both found in the Document Library), and have a deep and broad class-wide discussion on the different categories of science addressed. This should really get the experiment design juices flowing. Note that some of the nine science categories are more suited to lower grade levels (5-8), such as Seeds and Plant Studies, and Fish and Other Aquatic Life. So decide if there are specific science categories you might want to skip based on grade level appropriateness.
f. Have the class read the Master List of Experiment Samples document (found in the Document Library) as the first, top level constraint on their thinking. You can assign, e.g, different teams to research the samples (fluids and solids) in the different science categories and report what they found to the class. Wikipedia offers a wealth of information on these samples, and typically provides primary references at the bottom of the Wiki article. You’ll see that some categories are far better suited to middle school grades (e.g. Seeds and Plant Studies.) Then really challenge your students to come up with lots of questions—and corresponding hypotheses—that you can ask of the samples on the list, and that dovetail with the content in the Microgravity Science Background.
g. Put the Mini-Laboratory Operation page up on a screen for your flight opportunity (here is the page for STS-134 and here is the page for STS-135), and walk through the minilab’s specifications and operation with the class, and the important constraints on experimental design. Once this is done, the students will have an understanding of all the constraints they need to impose on their thinking when framing an experiment.
h. Put the Teacher and Student Proposer Resources page on a screen, and walk them through all the resources at their disposal. These resources are meant to show teachers and students how to address issues and questions as they arise.
i. Put the Critical Timeline page up on a screen for your flight opportunity (here is the page for STS-134 and here is the page for STS-135), and walk the students through the deadlines and milestones for their design competition.
j. Have the students read the Flight Experiment Proposal Guide (found in the Document Library), and the related document the Flight Experiment Proposal Guide: Background for Student Proposers, so they understand the requirements for the 5-page proposal, and the evaluation system used by the reviewers. Also make sure YOU read the document Flight Experiment Proposal Guide: Background for Teachers.
NOTE: the size of each proposing team is up to you. It could be an entire class, or a group of a few students. But be aware that your community’s Step 1 Review Board needs to review all community proposals and forward just three to the SSEP National Team. Talk to your SSEP Community Program Director to see what (s)he thinks might be a good teaming size.
k. Go have fun!
3. Important Considerations
Making use of Experts:
SSEP provides the opportunity for you and your students to reach out to local area researchers that have backgrounds in e.g., microbiology, even microgravity research. We encourage student teams to seek advice and counsel from area researchers (who by the way will love to be involved in SSEP), and can even provide access to analysis equipment. But what is important is that the experiment must be designed by the student team. The local researcher can be a source of expert advice.
Vendors:
When designing an experiment around specific fluids and solids, make sure that you can find vendors that: 1) can provide you the fluids and solids, and as rapidly as called for on the STS-135 Critical Timeline, and 2) provide the fluids and solids at a cost that is not prohibitively high. Your community is responsible for the cost of the fluids and solids.
What is important to remember is that we are talking about small volumes of fluids and solids. In general you will need to acquire about 12 times the volume needed to fill the wells (small test tubes) in the mini-lab to support the NASA flight safety review and up to three loadings of the payload for flight (in case the launch gets delayed requiring up to two reloads of the mini-lab.) But each well has a volume of only 125 microliters, so that 12 times that amount is still a small volume.
That said, we have found with STS-134, that if you tell a vendor about the SSEP program, they will most often bend over backwards to help you, often providing the fluids and solids at reduced or no cost. Also let the vendor know that NCESSE will be very happy to list them as a Local Partner of your community on the SSEP Community Profiles and Local Partners page.
Finally, if you cannot find a vendor, let us see if we can help!
Testing Experiments:
Make sure that all student team experiments can be carried out in the volume and dimensions of the mini-lab. Student teams should make sure to try their experiments in the MDA Experiment Design and Ground Truth Block that is provided to your community and which has wells (small test tubes) of the same dimensions as the mini-lab. The Block is described on the STS-135 Mini-laboratory Operation page, and there is also a document on the Block in the Document Library.
a. Note that the content described above appears in the To Teachers—Getting Started with Experiment Design document that is downloadable at the Document Library.
b. Remember you have a customized Blog for your community! Encourage students and teachers to write Blog entries to report on their experiences, but keep your experiments top secret. After all, this is a REAL SCIENCE COMPETITION.
c. We encourage you to submit student videos on the experience that we can upload to the SSEP YouTube site.
d. Stay tuned for the regularly scheduled live Tweet-ups for your students and community with scientists and engineers across the nation. You’ll need access to Twitter. For an understanding of the power of Twitter in education, read SSEP Director Jeff Goldstein’s essay in Huffington Post, titled: The Remarkable Power of Twitter: A Water Cooler for the 21st Century.