Students’ experiments to fly with shuttle

Agoura High School recently announced that students in Paul Kanter’s AP Physics class have been selected in the NASA Student Involvement Program’s (NSIP) 2003-04 competition to fly their team’s experiment aboard the space shuttle. Spencer Klein (senior), Ellis Kim (junior), Peter Lai (senior) and Daniel Rosen (junior) are being honored for their work on the Electrohydrodynamics in Space project. This project involves the separation of oil and water without the creation of artificial gravity (as produced in a centrifuge). Such separation is accomplished with electrohydrodynamics, the manipulation of water’s polar properties.

NSIP is NASA’s national program of competitions for students in kindergarten through grade 12. Agoura High School’s team is one of only four teams selected to prepare their shuttle experiment during the 2004 SEM Student Flight Week.

Last year, more than 3,500 students submitted over 1,200 research projects for the six NSIP competitions, which are: Space Flight Opportunities, Design a Mission to Mars, My Planet Earth, Watching Earth Change, Science & Technology Journalism, and Aerospace Technology Engineering Challenge.

Student entries are judged at NASA centers by teams of scientists, engineers, educators, journalists, and other professionals. The AHS team will travel to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in June to prepare their experiment to fly aboard the space shuttle.

NASA headquarters will officially announce the names of all NSIP winners in mid-April and post the names on the NSIP Website: http://www.nasa.gov/education/nsip.

NSIP is an important part of NASA’s efforts to inspire the next generation of explorers. "We’re elated to provide our Space Flight Opportunities winners with the incomparable experience of having their experiments flown in space. The thrill of discovery and achievement will have a whole new meaning for these students," said Lynn Marra, NSIP Program Manager at NASA headquarters. "We’re proud to honor their success and provide them with this special opportunity as only NASA can."