Students age 14 to 18 from around the world have a chance to get their experiments onto the International Space Station thanks to the YouTube Space Lab, launched by Lenovo and Google!
It’s a competition that was conceived by Zahaan Bharmal, Google’s Head of Marketing Operations for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He said, "I was a science student. I loved science in school. I studied physics in Oxford … and I came up with the idea, based on how space inspired me and the belief that it can inspire many others.”
Lance Ulanoff spoke to Bharmal for Mashable.com.
Kids need to submit their experiment—one that can be carried out on the space station—by December 7, 2011, to be considered. The entry must be in the form of a short video explaining the process. Individuals as well as groups can enter.
Finalists will be selected from the 14-16 age group and the 17-18 age group and each global region (The Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific) These will then go to a public vote on YouTube and will be judged by a panel of experts. The panel is impressive, including Professor Stephen Hawking; astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, who has been on space station missions; former astronaut Leland Melvin, who is NASA’s Associate Administrator for Education; Dr. Becky Parker, who is Head of Physics at the Simon Langston Grammar School for Boys in England; and, presenting the Imagineers, Guy Laliberté, who is the founder of Cirque de Soleil.
The prizes are incredible opportunities. The global winners will, first and foremost, get to see their experiment carried out on the space station via YouTube live streaming—and get to watch the launch in Japan. The winners may also opt to wait until they are 18 and take cosmonaut training in summer.
Global winners and regional winners will receive a ride on a Zero-G flight via a training plane that uses a deep dive to create weightlessness, lovingly known as the “Vomit Comet.” (In the movie Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks the zero-gravity portions were filmed on one of these planes. The weightlessness is real.)
A complete overview of the competition as well as great resources are on the YouTube SpaceLab Web site.
You might also be interested in, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, National Education Technology Plan 2010 (research report, download).
Additional ISM articles for Consortium members
I&P Vol. 27 No. 14 Creative Ways to Demonstrate Programmatic Success
I&P Vol. 35 No. 3 The 21st Century School: Curriculum and Technology
