A team of students from Silas Wood 6th Grade Center is interested in finding out if polymer beads can clean laundry in zero gravity. Their findings could help astronauts clean their clothes on the International Space Station, and in the future, on the moon or Mars!
Six students will have the opportunity to test their experiment on the International Space Station later this year. As a part of the *Student Spaceflight Experiment Program (SSEP), they will be among a select group of students who have had the opportunity to conduct research in microgravity.
During the mission, the student team will conduct two identical experiments – one on the Space Station and one in their classroom – to see if microgravity has an impact on the effectiveness of the polymer beads. The Polymer beads, supplied by Xeros Corporation, clean by expanding when in contact with a small amount of water, absorbing stains. The students predict the beads will work the same way in space, eventually allowing astronauts to clean their clothes while preserving water, a precious resource in space.
The winning team members are: Hassain Babar, Dylan Cellamare, Richard Kurjanski, Leo Musitano, Stephan Tsolis, and Jacob Veeder. The group will begin 7th grade next year at Stimson Middle School. Their teacher at Silas Wood is Ms. Carol Kelly.
The STEM Experiment was selected from 40 proposals submitted by 184 students from three South Huntington schools. A local committee made up of students, teachers and administrators from the Farmingdale University STEP Program, and a representative from the Astronomical Society of LI selected the top three experiments. A national review board, convened by the National Center of Earth and Space Science Education, which administers the program, selected the South Huntington experiment for spaceflight.
A student-designed mission patch will travel to the International Space Station with the experiment. Mia Stampfel and YiMei Potzinger both 5th-graders from Maplewood Intermediate School designed the winning patch. The patches will be certified as having flown in space and returned to display in South Huntington after the flight is completed.
Congratulations to all of our students who submitted experiments for judging, and especially to the finalists at Birchwood and Maplewood Intermediate School. This is an exciting example of how our STEM program in South Huntington is blossoming throughout the various grades and we are extremely proud of our winning team from Silas Wood, Long Island’s 1st STEM Career Academy.
Funding from local and national partners, including A Plus, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Casis, Cameron Engineering, Circor Airospace, Farmingdale State University, Long Island Forum for Technology, Subaru, and Zion Youth of Elmont made this wonderful experience possible.
*The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a national science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education in partnership with NanoRacks LLC, which is working with NASA under a formal Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.
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