By Cody Paige, Space Exploration Initiative
Collaborators: Jessica Todd, Madelyn Hoying
Working with Grade 7s in the Cambridge Public Schools, our outreach ambassadors guided students through the design of their own microgravity experiments. After the top five experiments built and demonstrated their work to astronaut Jeff Hoffman, the best one was selected to fly on the Zero-G flight. This was recorded in VR video for the students to experience the flight and the results of their experiments in class on a VR headset after the flight.
The selected experiment from 2022 was flown on the 2022 flight.
The selected experiments from 2023 and 2024 were both flown on the 2024 flight. The 2023 experiment looked at the impact of fluid viscosity on the movement of particles (sparkles in this case) in a fluid. The 2024 experiment examined the impact of microgravity on magnetism - magnetic powder, magnetic goo and magnetic pieces were agitated in separate compartments to see how they moved in relation to magnets on the outside of their compartments.