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December 7, 2010

Experiments in Reduced Gravity: Team Reports 1Presented by teams from: New York,

North Carolina, Missouri, and Delaware

I.  Reduced‐Gravity Opportunity:  A Collaborative Effort– NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Oklahoma State University, Teaching 

from Space Program – NASA JSC Reduced‐Gravity Office – National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)

II.  Participant Process where Teachers…– Propose, design, and fabricate RG investigation with their students– Fly the experiment/conduct research in a microgravity environment– Evaluate the investigation– Share findings with students, other teachers, and greater education arena. 

III.  Competitive Application Process administered by NSTA

IV.  Reduced Gravity Education Flight Week: July 29‐August 6, 2010

Experiments in Reduced Gravity: Team Reports #1

Matthew Keil Teaching From Space OfficeNASA Johnson Space Center

• Participation

• Unique Opportunities

• Get Involved:NASA Express Mail Listserv

www.nasa.gov/education/express

Teaching From Space Websitewww.nasa.gov/education/tfs

Teachers participated in PD with NSTA and NASA

• Four Pre-flight web seminars

• NASA mentor

• Learning Center FREE Access to resources and tools

• Private Discussion Forum

• Flight Week PD Experiences in Houston

Meeting NASA scientists, engineers, ed specialists, astronauts, tours of facilities, flight training

RG flight and post-flight presentation

• Post-flight web seminars (Dec. 7, 9, & 14)

Effect of Reduced Gravity on Electrochemical Cells

Fairport, New York

Students at work…

Experiment Conditions• 2 Copper/Zinc Electrochemical Cells• 2 Copper/Aluminum Electrochemical Cells

Experiencing Weightlessness

Results at 1 GZn/Cu & Al/Cu Cells

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ge (v

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What will happen to voltage during flight?

A.Increases during microgravity

B.Decreases during microgravity

C.Increases during hypergravity

D.Decreases during hypergravity

E.No change

Flight Day Results

• Flight Day – Houston, TX

Voltage Production at Varying Gravity Conditions

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Next experiment…

• Try a dry cell battery to determine if the gravity effect is a result of a concentration gradient

• Test different types of volt meters to determine if the gravity effect is a result of the equipment

• Experiment with different metal/salt solution combinations

Presentations to Our Community

• Rotary Groups• Rochester Academy of Sciences –

Astronomy Section• STANYS – Science Teachers Association

of New York State• Algebra Classes at Fairport HS• Fifth Grade Classes in Fairport that are

involved with the Challenger Project• Local College Students and Faculty

Let’s pause for questions from the audience

Greensboro Day SchoolHooke’s Law Orbital Motion

Reduced-Gravity Flight Experiment

Jeff RegesterPhysics

Jason CheekMathematics

Tim MartinEarth Science

Chris BernhardtChemistry

Melinda GrahamMathematics

Eric ShillingMathematics

Hooke’s Lawdescribes the force exerted by a spring

F=k·xF = forcex = stretch of the springk = spring constant

Normal orbits caused by gravity lead to elliptical orbits. If gravity is replaced by a spring, what will the orbits look like?

stiffer springs have bigger k’s

Hooke’s Law OrbitsTwo masses, connected by a spring, are set spinning by a turntable apparatus. HYPOTHESIS: When released in 0g, the masses will oscillate in and out as they also orbit the system center of mass.

Detailed numerical model predictions are to be compared with high-speed video footage.

Construction &

Testing

Ellington Field

Fiona, our wonderful NASA mentor!

Test Readiness Review (TRR) Day One

Flight!

Flight ground track A video frame. Video was shot at 300 frames per second.

Twenty-six successful runs, testing a variety of parameters (spring constant, masses, initial RPM and axis location) were completed.

Flight 2 Run 16

Numerical model prediction

For more info...Go to the HLOM project website for

– photos and video– raw and analyzed data– numerical models– articles, papers and classroom activities as

they are writtenhttp://academic.greensboroday.org/

~regesterj/data/rgo-HLOM/MANY THANKS TO: Fiona Turett, our NASA/JSC mentor,

Flavio Mendez & Marie Wiggins at NSTAthe RGO and TFS teams at NASA, andGDS for the financial support!

Let’s pause for questions from the audience

Bubble Jeopardy Fulton High SchoolFlight Team: Chip McCann, Louis Schnoebelen, Julie Gastler, Stephanie Smith

Student Team: John Barden, Corri Hamilton, Jessie Jennings, Jalen Mahaney, Jesse McDow, Ben Menke, Jaena Smith, Taylor Woodall.

The Experiment: What do you want to know about zero-g?

• What the students did:– Brainstorm– Develop the procedure– Design an apparatus

• The end result:– Bubble Jeopardy: How

will gravity affect the rate of an acid base reaction?

Hypotheses

A. The reaction will proceed at a slower rate at lower acceleration due to gravity.

B. The reaction will proceed at a faster rate at lower acceleration due to gravity.

C. The reaction will be unaffected by acceleration due to gravity.

What do you think?

The Apparatus• Student

designed– Very LARGE

Thank you to Sammie Potts of the Physics Machine Shop at University of Missouri.

• Size concerns

Summer Work

• Changes– Materials– Extra efforts to separate

materials– Data collected

• Students ran 1-g trials.• Fundraising

– BBQ/Carwash– Parking Spot Raffles– Support Request Letters

Houston

• Meetings• Loading

– Problems with humidity

• Flight Day 1– Problems with humidity and

camera

• Flight Day 2– Problems with camera

• Tours

Back home• Data Analysis

– No video data– Few data points– Results

• Inconclusive

– Data Comparison

• Presentations– Rotary Club, School

Board• Classroom Use

Volume After 5 Seconds

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Acceleration, g

Volume, m

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Credits

– Moser’s– Westlakes ACE Hardware– Tractor Supply– Wal-Mart– Ameren UE– Fastlane– Lacrosse Lumber– MU Physics Machine Shop– Fulton High School Alumni– And many many others

Let’s pause for questions from the audience

NASA Reduced Gravity Flight

Education WeekDELAWARE AGRISCIENCE

TEACHERS – TEAM #1Sarah Bell

Cathy DiBenedettoScott HaldemanKellie Michaud

“Capturing Carbon from Fossil Fuels and Biofuels: Does Gravity

Matter?”Does gravity have an impact on the amount of carbon released

in simple burning of a wick saturated in kerosene and a wick saturated in ethanol?

Method• On Ground Research

– We each completed our experiment with students in the Spring of 2010

• Experiment Set-Up– We altered our experiment so that we burned

kerosene and ethanol while in flight– We brought with us 30 150 mL bottles to

collect emissions– We completed titrations on the ground

• Hypothesis– Our students hypothesized that gravity would

make a difference• Student/Classroom Results

– In class, our results indicated that kerosene and ethanol both emit the same amount of Carbon Dioxide

– We also completed burn trials while on the plane in a 1 G environment and the data was the same

Flight Week• Preparation

– Securing our Experiment on the plane

• Zero G Results– Kerosene burned well in Zero G– Ethanol difficulties

• 2 G Results– Kerosene flame size was twice as

great– Ethanol flame size was twice as

great• Flight Week Modifications

– During the first flight on Thursday of flight week we had trouble lighting flames

– Made adjustments to wick size as well as collection capabilities

– We were able to collect data better during the second flight and much more efficiently due to these modifications

Discussion• Challenges

– Securing all components of the experiment in the box during flight.

– Collecting all the data is the short amount of time given during each parabola

– Anticipating what the flight will be like in order to plan for variables and setbacks.

– TEDP/Test Readiness Review (TRR)

– Getting on the plane and flying in Zero Gravity!

• Successes– Modifying the experiment the

second time around – Carrying out a relative, current,

and successful experiment– Collecting all the data points on

the second trial– Growing closer to the team and

enjoying the experience!

Conclusions• Results

– Less carbon was emitted at zero gravity than 1G and more carbon was emitted at 2G than at 1G

– There was no significant difference in the amount of CO2 emitted from the ethanol or kerosene flames

• Analysis– Carbon emission is directly related to

size of flame– Size of flame is directly related to

amount of gravity– Flames became smaller in size in

decreased gravity and thus less carbon was emitted

– Flames were greater in size in increased gravity and more carbon was emitted

• Future Modifications– Organize trials better and decrease

number of burns– Try other types of fuels (ie. Biodiesel)

Acknowledgements• NASA• Reduced Gravity Education

Office• Reduced Gravity Flight

Crews• Dr. Thomas Leimkuehler• Ernie Bell• NSTA• The DuPont Company• Pioneer• Delaware Association of

Agricultural Educators• Lab-Aids• Vernier Equipment

Let’s pause for questions from the audience

• December 9, 2010NASA: Experiments in Reduced Gravity:

Team Reports 2

• December 14, 2010NASA: Experiments in Reduced Gravity:

Team Reports 3

Thank you to the sponsor of tonight's Web Seminar:

http://learningcenter.nsta.org

http://www.elluminate.com

National Science Teachers AssociationDr. Francis Q. Eberle, Executive Director

Zipporah Miller, Associate Executive Director Conferences and Programs

Al Byers, Assistant Executive Director e-Learning

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NSTA Web SeminarsPaul Tingler, Director

Jeff Layman, Technical Coordinator