Click on the image and feel the magic. Shuttle Endeavour on her final flight (STS-135) is docked at the International Space Station, May 23, 2011. Aboard her are 16 SSEP Experiments. Read more about this image at nasa.gov
The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) is seeking National Partners for the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), a high caliber, high media visibility national STEM education initiative with a focus on grades 5-14.
The need for National Partners, a list of NCESSE’s commitments to a National Partner, and how an organization can become a National Partner are described in Sections 5, 6, and 7 below. A National Partner provides at least $25K/yr for a minimum of 2 years, though return on that investment can be assessed by the Partner after 1 year to determine if year 2 funding should proceed.
1. Program Overview
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) was launched in June 2010 by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in strategic partnership with NanoRacks, LLC. It is a remarkable U.S. national Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiative that gives typically 300+ students across a community the ability to design and propose real microgravity experiments to fly in low Earth orbit, first aboard the final flights of the Space Shuttle, and then on the International Space Station (ISS) – America’s newest National Laboratory.
In 2012, SSEP was extended to international communities through the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education, NCESSE’s new international arm.
Designed as a model national STEM education program, SSEP is generating significant amounts of media attention, with hundreds of articles at the local, regional, and national level (see the In the News page.) It is changing the way teachers teach STEM disciplines, and changing the way students perceive science and their ability to do it (see the In Our Own Words page.)
SSEP provides seamless integration across STEM disciplines through an authentic, high visibility research experience. The program is designed to inspire and engage America’s next generation of scientists and engineers, and it is accomplished by providing each participating community their own very real Space Program. The program embraces the Next Generation Science Standards, which place emphasis on content within the context of process, and promotes authentic, cross disciplinary, immersive research experiences. The program nurtures skills in critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and communication – reflective of the skill sets required of professional scientists and engineers.
SSEP is about immersing and engaging students and their teachers in every facet of real science—on the high frontier—so that students are given the chance to be scientists—and experience science firsthand.
More broadly, SSEP is about a commitment to student ownership in exploration, to science as journey, and to the joys of learning.
2. Program Director – Ensuring Alignment to National Need and Program Success
Of particular note, the Program’s creator Dr. Jeff Goldstein is the Center Director for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, and is the SSEP Program Director [see bio at NCESSE; and bio at LinkedIn]. Dr. Goldstein is also a nationally recognized science educator whose views are sought by the national science and STEM education community. Some relevant examples –
– the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) asked Dr. Goldstein to deliver the General Session Address on the Framework for the Next Generation Science Standards at the 2012 NSTA National Conference, Indianapolis, IN.
– the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) asked him to deliver the Keynote Address to 6,000 science teachers at the 2011 NSTA National Conference, San Francisco, CA, on science and STEM education for the 21st Century.
– upcoming: KAPPA DELTA PI – International Honor Society in Education, 49th Biennial Convocation Keynote Address, Dallas, TX, October 2013. Expected audience: 1,100; 50% pre-service teachers and 50% education faculty and other education professionals.
– an extensive list of Dr. Goldstein’a essays on science and science education. He is also a blogger for the Huffington Post (an example).
3. Program Operations
SSEP provides each participating community a precious but limited research asset – a real, very straightforward to use microgravity research mini-laboratory and guaranteed launch services to get that mini-lab containing a single experiment to the International Space Station where it will be operated by an astronaut, and then returned safely to Earth for harvesting and analysis by the student flight team. The school community then engages hundreds of students, in teams of 3-5, each proposing how they would use that asset to conduct real microgravity research. Each student team designs their own microgravity research experiment making use of the mini-lab, with real world constraints imposed by the operation of the mini-lab and flight operations to and from low Earth orbit, and writes a real but grade level appropriate proposal using a formal Proposal Guideline. For 300 students, we typically see 40-60 flight experiment proposals from one community. Facilitation of this process is done by a Local Team of educators in the school district, as prescribed in the community’s formally submitted and approved SSEP Implementation Plan. The Plan also details the community’s strategic needs in STEM education, and how SSEP helps meet those needs.
All student team proposals across a community then go through a 2-step proposal review process, with the SSEP National Step 2 Review Board meeting at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to select the flight experiment for each community. The flight experiments then undergo formal NASA Flight Safety Review by the Toxicology Office at Johnson Space Center at least 90 days in advance of launch.
Flight operations begin with integration of the flight experiments into a SSEP payload and transport to the International Space Station (ISS) via a ferry flight launching from either Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, aboard SpaceX Dragon, or from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), VA, aboard Orbital Sciences Cygnus. Once aboard ISS, an astronaut assigned as a technician to the payload will conduct the experiments according to the protocol defined by the student researcher teams. After typically a 6 to 8 week stay aboard Station, the payload is returned to Earth via a Soyuz vehicle landing in Kazakhstan, and is then rapidly air-freighted back to NASA Johnson Space Center, where each mini-lab can be picked up by a representative of the community or be overnighted back to the student researcher team for harvesting and analysis.
This process PRECISELY mirrors how NASA makes available precious but limited research assets to the professional research community through a call for proposals, a national review, and selection. And it precisely mirrors how professional researchers get their microgravity experiments to orbit and back. Again, SSEP is full immersion in every facet of real research.
Students can design experiments in diverse fields, including: seed germination, crystal growth, physiology and life cycles of microorganisms (e.g. bacteria), cell biology and growth, food studies, and studies of micro-aquatic life. Content resources for teachers and students support foundational instruction on science in microgravity and experiment design. A suite of SSEP program elements—the Community Program—leverages the flight experiment design competition to engage the entire community, embracing a Learning Community Model for STEM education. This includes community-wide grade K-12 art and design competitions to create up to two Mission Patches to accompany the community’s flight experiment to orbit. For school districts—even individual schools—SSEP provides an opportunity to implement a systemic, high caliber STEM education program tailored to community need.
Important note: SSEP is not designed for an individual class or a small number of students in a community. This is a highly leveraged STEM initiative.
As part of the authentic nature of this immersive research experience for students, SSEP also provides student researchers their own national research conference held annually at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in early July, where student research teams report on their microgravity experiment designs, and teams with experiments that have returned from low Earth orbit report on experiment results. Researchers report out via both oral powerpoint and poster presentations. All student presentations are archived at the Museum’s YouTube channel, and are also ported on a flight opportunity-by-flight opportunity basis to the SSEP Scientific Return and Reporting pages. The 3rd SSEP National Conference was held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, July 2-3, 2013.
SSEP nurtures a comprehensive set of communications skills through proposal writing and submission, and both oral and poster presentations at the conference – skills that are vital for professional researchers to secure needed research funds and assets, and to report out research results.
4. Program Heritage to Date
Since program inception in June 2010, there have been 7 SSEP flight opportunities — SSEP on STS-134 and STS-135, which were the final flights of Space Shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis; and SSEP Missions 1 through 5 to ISS. To date, 60 communities have participated in the program, with over 100,000 grade K-14 students across 540 schools given the opportunity to participate in their community-wide experience. A total of 21,600 grade 5-14 students were fully immersed in microgravity experiment design and proposal writing, and 5,091 experiment proposals were submitted by student teams. To date, 14 communities have participated in 2, 3, or 4 flight opportunities, reflecting the sustainable nature of the program.
A sampling of relevant links:
Student research teams presenting at the SSEP conference:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/communities/scientific-return-and-reporting/scientific-return-and-reporting-mission-1-to-iss/
Community Profiles, Local Partners, and How SSEP Addresses Each Community’s Strategic Needs in STEM Education:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/communities/community-directory/
THE NATIONAL PARTNERS page:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/national-partners/
Experiments Selected for Flight, and Honorable Mention finalists:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/communities/experiments-selected-for-flight/
SSEP Articles in the Media:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/communities/in-the-news/
Essays from community leaders, teachers, students, and partners:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/communities/in-our-own-words/
Summary of SSEP Flight Operations to Date:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/current-flight-opportunities/
Teacher and Student Researcher Resources:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/teacher-and-student-proposer-resources/
Microgravity Flight Experiment Design:
http://ssep.ncesse.org/about-ssep/designing-the-flight-experiment/
5. The Need for National Partners
SSEP is a bold new commercial space venture in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC. The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, must recover the actual costs for the program (lease of commercial space for the mini-laboratory in the flight payload and aboard ISS, all flight services, program delivery and community support), but also recognizes the significant challenge to a community in securing underwriting in the current financial climate. For a community to participate in SSEP costs $21,500 on a full cost recovery basis. The majority of school districts that put forward superb Implementation Plans for SSEP are simply not in a position to underwrite the program. NCESSE is therefore committed to trying to find funding for any community in the U.S. interested in participating. We have therefore been allocating substantial internal development labor hours for fundraising on behalf of the schools for each of the 7 flight opportunities to date – which is a precedent-setting business model reflective of our dedication to the program, to the next generation of scientists and engineers, and to America’s future through STEM workforce development. We don’t believe in insurmountable hurdles, but rather that success requires organizations to step to the plate in creative new ways.
Our approach is to pull together a consortium of underwriting partners in that community – the Local Partners – each contributing an amount that is budgetarily comfortable to them but still meaningful in terms of reaching the $21.5K target (see, e.g., representative consortia of Local Partners for the Mission 4 to ISS communities.) To date, the Center has found funding for 62 of the 78 SSEP community programs undertaken as part of the first six SSEP flight opportunities, and we now have active relationships with a network of local funders across the nation.
However, by the deadline for Letters of Commitment of Funding for a flight opportunity, often our fundraising for a community falls short by $3,000 – $5,000 dollars. Such a shortfall will most often ensure that a community will not be able to come aboard, unless NCESSE has unrestricted funds that can be used to fill such shortfalls. Given the nature of Local Partners, any surplus funding potential in one community cannot be transferred to another community since Local Partners are stakeholders in specifically their community, and their funding is therefore restricted for use by that community.
What is needed are National Partners that receive a stake in the entire SSEP National Program, and whose monetary contribution can be used to fill budget shortfalls at the local level where needed. As a working example, the funding provided for SSEP Missions 3 and 4 to ISS by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), a SSEP National Partner, allowed budget shortfalls to be filled for 18 communities, which enabled 7,040 grade 5-12 students to be fully immersed in experiment design, and resulted in 1,519 microgravity experiment proposals from student teams. All this was made possible by CASIS.
6. Requirements for National Partnership
An organization interested in coming aboard as a National Partner would commit to provide at least $25,000 per year for two years, during which time they will be designated as a National Partner. After 1 year, the National Partner can re-assess their return on investment, and opt to terminate their participation if they choose.
A $25,000 annual contribution would be a remarkable gift to the program, providing NCESSE the ability to close budget shortfalls of $3,000 to $5,000 for 5 to 8 communities that would otherwise not be able to participate. Given each community engages a minimum of 300 students, the National Partner can take pride in enabling participation by at least 1,500 to 2,400 students, resulting in 300-500 flight experiment proposals by student teams. This reflects enormous leveraging of high visibility high caliber STEM education experiences for students that the National Partner can report to their Board and to the public. In addition, for 5 to 8 communities to participate in SSEP requires a total of $107,500 to $172,000 (at $21,500 per community.) Thus a $25,000 commitment by a National Partner reflects a 4:1 to 7:1 leveraging of their dollars.
7. NCESSE Commitments to a National Partner
The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education will make the following commitments to a National Partner, recognizing the needed return on their investment in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program –
i) National Partner identification on 95,000 emails sent to school district superintendents and principals as a twice per year national announcement of opportunity for SSEP flight opportunities;
ii) National Partner identification on all SSEP National Blog posts (e.g., see bottom of a recent post), which have a significant high worth subscriber base of currently over 2,000 active subscribers reflecting more than 200 underwriting institutions (corporations, foundations, local and state government), staff at over 28 Space Grant colleges and universities, a significant number of NASA STEM education and flight operations staff across the NASA Centers, and to stakeholders in all the participating communities. All subscribers get email notification of a new blog post.
iii) National Partner identification on all SSEP Press releases (sample);
iv) National Partner identification on all main webpages for both SSEP Websites: the SSEP Program website – the site you are currently on, which addresses program operations and all available resources, and the separate SSEP Community Network Hubsite – which is dedicated to all the communities participating in the program. The National Partner’s logo and designation as a National Partner appears at the top of the right column for all main webpages.
v) A dedicated National Partners page on the SSEP Program website, where the strategic interest in STEM education for each Partner is provided, together with logo and link to the Partner’s website. A link to this National Partners page appears throughout the SSEP websites, in numerous SSEP public communications, and can be used in communication originating from a National Partner.
vi) The opportunity to propose a featured presentation for the SSEP National Conference, which takes place in early July at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. We have limited slots for feature presentations, and a presentation must have an education focus on some subject relevant to the student researchers, teachers, community leadership, and parents in attendance. Possible relevant subjects include: the future of commercial spaceflight, a vision for human deep space exploration, why it is important to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, and a history of spaceflight. A presentation must not be perceived as a marketing presentation. For the 2013 SSEP National Conference, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), an SSEP National Partner, presented on the goals and operation of the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station. NCESSE invites proposals for featured talks from the National Partners for review.
vii) Support for press releases, newsletter articles, and other communication originating with the National Partner. Support includes providing as needed: content, photographs and multimedia, logos, quotes, article review, and ideas for topic and positioning for a specific communication. A National Partner will have 24/7 direct access to Jeff Goldstein, the Program Director: cell 301-395-0770; jeffgoldstein@ncesse.org.
viii) NCESSE recognizes that a National Partner may have a unique need relative to the partnership. NCESSE is therefore open to discussing any other needs or requests as part of a National Partnership.
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with NanoRacks LLC, working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), Carnegie Institution of Washington, NASA Nebraska Space Grant Consortium, and Subaru of America, Inc., are National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.