June 5, 2009
Today our school helped out the Connecticut Science Center by doing a “dry run” for their opening day next week.
It was an exciting day since we were among the first to enjoy Hartford’s newest building. Students were able to enjoy 2 of the exhibits: Speed and The Human Body. All the exhibits were highly engaging, interactive and fostered inquiry. As I overheard one student say “This is better than a field trip…”
The building itself is spectacular. Overlooking the Connecticut River, and reaching at least 6 stories high, it was overpowering and outstanding.
The building and facilities have not reached their full potential, but it is very promising.
May 7, 2009
Secondary Experimentation
I’ll admit it, I’m a microgravity addict. Nothing describes the experience until you actually do it. True weightlessness is even better than floating in the ocean. Part of the project was to see how your body reacts in microgravity. My body loved it. Granted, I did get sick, once, and at the end of the trip, but even that was the coolest experiment! Imagine throwing up with ease. Yep, I said it, throwing up in microgravity was awesome. No effort needed, just let physics completely take over. You can’t even imagine what that feels like.
Free Fallin'
Aside from the sick part, the piece about just letting physics taking over your body allowed me was probably the most significant part of the experiment. It’s probably one of the only times I have ever really “let go”. At least, it felt that way.
Howling with the Wolves
February 28, 2009
If you ever get an opportunity to float in microgravity, I highly recommend it. My flight today was incredible to say the least. People compare floating in space to floating in water. It is similar but a feeling that really can not be described until you try it. Not to forget, we were there for work and had a lot of success collecting data for our experiment. We had colored spheres today. We also added a surprise ending to our experiment, but we have to wait for the video for that one. I will continue to add to this blog for some time after this trip because we still have to analyze our data.
So I know everyone is dying to know if I vomited on the vomit comet. You’ll have to ask her yourself.
Can’t wait to go back home and see everyone on Monday!
February 27, 2009
Half of the NES-CREC Team got to fly today! Everyone was so excited. We showed up in our flight suits at the hangar early this morning. We got to stand on the side and watch as they boarded the plane and take off. They all reported it as a wonderful experience .
The experiment went well, but the spheres did not do anything that we have hypothesized up until this point. Instead of spreading apart, the team reported that they stayed together even in microgravity. Tomorrow, we are using colored spheres so we can see them bMy favorite part of today was the DLN video conference with my school and the two other schools. It was so exciting to talk to all the students live from Houston. Your questions were great!
The afternoon was spent at Mission Control. We got to see people at work because they were doing a simulation. I can not believe how many people are needed to make sure the space shuttle and space station are safe. We also got to visit the first Mission Control built in the 1960’s. The buttons and dials were not computerized so they looked very different than today.
New Mission Control Center
Old Mission Control
After tomorrow, I’ll have plenty of stories to share about what it is like in microgravity.
February 26, 2009
- Our experiment: Will these spheres pack in Hexagon formation in microgravity?
Our experiment: Did you know the only way spheres pack on Earth is in hexagonal shape? We are testing to see if they pack the same way where there is little gravity. Our experiment has spheres between 2 plates of Lexan (a special fiberglass). We will be pulling on the lever during microgravity (when there is little gravity) and then again when we hit hypergravity (2X the normal gravity) to see what happens to the spheres.
Today was jam packed. We fixed the broken bar on our experiment and we loaded it onto the Boening 727.
Drilling a hole in our new bar.
Putting the experiment back together as a team.
Our experiment was loaded onto the plane with a fork lift.
Giving the experiment a run through. We had to place it into something called a “glove box”. You can’t see the top cover in the picture but it is to make sure all the
pieces stay in one place. Even one little loose object getting into the engine could cause big problems.
Even though I don’t fly in the plane until Friday, half of the CREC team will fly on Thursday. I am very excited for them and I can’t wait to see you on our video conference!!!
February 25, 2009
Johnson Space Center is the only site in the US where astronauts train. This place has more simulators than Mr. Lebatique has bikes! The following are some highlights of today.
This is the lunar rover that will be used to get around on the next mission to the moon.
Astronauts will be able to attach themselves to the back of the vehicle like so:
Are you into robotics? Then, NASA is your place. Check out this robot called “Spider” for obvious reasons.
We also learned about what spacesuits are made up of. I found out that they are really heavy here on Earth.
Today the first group of teachers flew on the Microgravity plane, or the vomit comet. Only one teacher got sick, everyone else described it as fun! Tomorrow we are going to go on the plane to load our experiment so we will get to see the inside of the plane for the first time.
Some notes:
Our experimental question is “How does microgravity affect the way spheres pack together?”
Ms. Reed’s class asked about the plunger and how many times it would be pulled. We will pull it just before we go into microgravity (O G’s) and just before we go into hyper-gravity (2G’s). We will be doing this 32 times on each flight on Thursday and Friday.
February 24, 2009
This morning we needed to get our experiment ready for approval by the Test Readiness Review committee. The committee includes about 15-20 NASA engineers and scientists. They came around to each team to approve the projects and check for safety . We had to present our experiment to them and then they asked us questions. If you think middle school is the only place you have to do rough drafts, look at all the markings on our presentation!
Our many drafts.
Unexpectedly, minutes before the Testing Readiness Review our experiment broke! The aluminum bar holding the spheres had split in half. Any ideas about why this happened? (comment below if you’d like to share).
Broken Aluminum Bar
As any scientist will tell you, these things happen, so we planned a course of action. When the committee came by, we explained what had happened and they offered to help us by making a new one. Phew!
The Test Readiness Review Committee inspects our experimentMrs. Spiegal explaining the experiment to TRR.
The afternoon was the best because our NASA mentor, Mr. Paul Uranga who trains astronauts, gave us a private tour of the Shuttle Mission Simulators. I got to be the pilot (click on the video…coming soon!
).
Even better, we got to meet some astronauts! One of the astronauts will be the first female teacher to do a spacewalk next year. Allen Pointdexter has been the commander on several other shuttle flights. We were definitely thrilled to meet them.
I hope everyone at Two Rivers is doing well and please feel free to ask questions through the comment link below. Some questions I’d like you to think about and answer for me are:
Aside from learning to fly, what other things might astronauts practice in a shuttle simulator?
If you were on the Test Readiness Review committee, what questions would you ask the different teams?
February 23, 2009
Friday was a very long and busy day. We spent the morning in class learning about AIR PRESSURE. So, 6th graders listen up. YOU will be learning about air pressure again. Did you know that the human body has a very hard time adapting to air over 10,000 ft? Anything above that has too little air and not enough pressure against your body. This can cause a lot of problems; things like hypoxia and decompression sickness.
I always wondered how astronauts trained to be in outer space and I found out and got to see how they do. It’s in water!
Neutral Buoyancy Lab with the ISS
We got to tour the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. This was the biggest pool I had ever seen! It was 202 feet long and 40 feet deep. In it is a copy of the International Space Station so astronauts can practice what they would do in space. We just missed the astronauts who train 4-6 hours in the pool for every 1 hour they spacewalk.
Getting ready for my oxygen mask.
The last part of the afternoon was spent fitting our oxygen masks and getting ready for “the chamber”. Air is taken out of the chamber like it would each 1000 feet you go up in the atmosphere (think Elevator in Space from the FossWeb site.) We went all the way up to 25,0000 feet! At that point they made us take our oxygen masks off to see what our bodies would do with little oxygen. I felt a little dizzy and it was hard to breathe. We kept the masks off for 5 minutes and then put the oxygen masks on.
The reason we had to do this training was so we would know what to do if we lost cabin pressure on the microgravity flight. The “Weightless Wonder” goes up to almost 40,000 feet at points.
On Monday, we will getting the experiment ready for flight and answer questions from NASA engineers and scientists about the experiment.
February 20, 2009
We arrived at Ellington Field early this morning and entered a hanger. There, our experiment that we had shipped a week ago, was waiting in a box on a table next to the C-9 Weightless Wonder along with some other planes.
Our Experiment: How will microgravity affect the packing of spheres?
After some orientation and introduction, we were ready to work on our project. It was hard to remain focused at that point as all 10 other tea
ms unveiled their experiments too. Experiments such as “To Fizz or Not to Fizz: Mentos and Diet Coke” and “Projecting Projectiles”. These projects were generated by students from around the country and brought here to Houston by their teachers.
What will mentos and diet coke do in microgravity?
The best news came later in the morning in a meeting. We would not be flying the C-9 Weightless Wonder, but the even bigger 727 Vomit Comet. This means that all alternates will be able to fly too! Alternate=Miss Tamborini=I’m flying! The other incredible news was that we would be flying with actual NASA researchers who would be conducting the effects of microgravity on the human body.
Some other highlights from today:
- Former astronauts will be guiding and helping us on our flight. 1G= the effect of gravity on us here on Earth.
- We will be doing 32 parabolas total on our flight and expierence a range from 0G’s-2 G’s.
- Our mentor, Paul, actually trains astronauts.
- Tomorrow is our first time in the hyperbolic chamber. Did you know that the human body has 2 pints of gas in it at any one time? This expands to 6 pints of gas when in the chamber. We stayed away from the beans tonight…
February 20, 2009
The CREC NASA Teacher Team has arrived in Houston! Smooth flight from Connecticut. We are eager to find out about what our week will look like. Everything down here in this part of Houston is about NASA. NASA t-shirts, NASA Teddy Bears, even NASA hotels. It’s true what they say about Texas; Everything is big…especially our larger than life SUV.
