Three Jackson County schools are among the finalist being considered for having their experiments performed during Mission 12 on the International Space Station. Karen Bridgeman is the Communications Coordinator with the system.
“Jackson County Schools was one of 31 schools selected from the U.S., Canada and Brazil to participate in a really exciting student space experiment program,” according to Bridgeman. “We know that one of these three will be selected am be among the 31 experiments that are conducted by the astronauts next summer.
The finalists are all 5th grade students. They include Gum Springs students' interest in seeing if fairy shrimp will hatch and grow in space, West Jackson students want to know if strawberry seeds will germinate and South Jackson students want to determine if tea tree oil will kill E. coli.
Proposals from 24 local student teams were judged by a system-level review board made up individuals representing the business, higher education, and science education communities, as well as the community at large. The board selected the three top proposals, which are now being evaluated by a second review board in Washington, DC.
The school system expects to know by Dec. 18 which project will be selected to fly to the International Space Station in early June when astronauts will conduct the 31 student experiments in space.
Jackson County is one of 31 schools chosen from U.S., Canada, and Brazil to be considered for the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.