Live performances and NASA outreach engage museum visitors and students around the world, helping them to see the light in space research.

Above: Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, an STS-107 crewmember featured in Space Research and You, talks about conducting experiments in microgravity.

Developed as a museum presentation program on compact discs, Space Research and You was designed by McLain Science Education for the Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) to make infor-mation from the orbital research community accessible to everyone. The presentation discs are full of video clips, sound bites, animations, and interviews that feature astronauts and principal investigators discussing the science behind several of the projects studying biology, combustion, and physics. A live host and a virtual host lead the fast-paced presentation, which also engages a few volunteers from the crowd in hands-on demonstrations that showcase several experiments and concepts.

A KC-135 low-gravity aircraft demonstration illustrates how the jet's roller-coaster trajectory creates brief moments of microgravity for training astronauts and conducting preliminary experiments. Astronauts, along with others who have ridden NASA's low-g aircraft, have dubbed it the "Vomit Comet," because the fluctuation in gravity environments causes nausea.

In one of the hands-on opportunities, a volunteer turns a crank on a makeshift bioreactor — a clear, water-filled cylinder with bits of crinkled paper inside — illustrating how biologists use fluid physics to grow cells three-dimensionally, a task difficult to achieve on a grand scale on Earth due to gravity. In this demonstration, the paper represents cells and the water the nutrient media.

The hands-on activity is based on the Bioreactor Demonstration System, developed by a team of engineers at Johnson Space Center. Inside an incubator, a fluid-filled cylinder rotates horizontally at the appropriate speed, while the cells within remain gently suspended in the solution as the force of gravity is randomized. With buoyant forces acting on the cells, the cells escape the effects of gravity and grow as they do in the human body. "On Earth, the period of growth is limited due to the increasing size and mass of the aggregates, which causes the cells to fall through the fluid," says Thomas Goodwin, project scientist for the Bioreactor Demonstration System. "When that happens, turbulence and fluid shear are increased, damaging the fragile aggregates of tissue, and the tissues can no longer grow properly."

"The real crowd-pleasers are the rotating chair activity and the fluid-filled glovebox," says Brad McLain, creator of the multimedia program and cofounder of McLain Science Education. The rotating chair demonstrates the way microgravity can disturb how a person's inner ear organ controls balance. One at a time, volunteers sit in a free-spinning chair with their hands in front in a thumbs-up position. While the volunteer either shuts his or her eyes or wears a blindfold, the chair is spun in a certain direction. While spinning, volunteers point their thumbs in the direction in which they think they are turning. This experiment relates to NASA's continuing investigation of the body's adaptation to microgravity. In the fluid-filled glovebox activity, visitors can insert their hands into gloves that are attached to a sealed workbench. The gloves lead to the interior of the box, which is filled with a fluid, allowing visitors to experience neutral buoyancy.

With the permission of Lucasfilm Ltd., R2-D2tm serves as the virtual host of the program. The helpful droid whistles his trademark bleeps when asked to fetch a file or carry out a task.

Space Research and You is rated "E" for entertaining and educating everyone, and McLain describes the program as a form of "edutainment." The presentation invites audiences of all ages into the world of astronauts and researchers, where it sparks the interest to learn and teaches the value of this research in everyday life.

The animated museum production debuted internally at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science April 9–12 to members of the NASA Space Biology Museum Network and their guests. Thirteen museums and science centers in the United States and Canada received a copy of the discs and a training certificate that enables them to train others as hosts of the museum presentation once the presentation is released to the public. "We plan on using a 'train the trainers' model for distribution," says Gary Coulter, director of the network. "After the presentation passes all the necessary approvals, we hope to release it to the public in June. The distribution process will work like ripples in a pond."

As part of Space Research and You, a concept-based resource disc provides lesson plans, experiments, schematics, and background information about NASA and the STS-107 mission. (See insert.) "This gives museums and science centers the flexibility to adapt material beyond presentations," says McLain. "For example, the resource disc provides sufficient materials similar to the presentation activities for the development of workshops." The text-based CD-ROM also includes a virtual space science library, activities that can be printed, and schematics to build demonstration props. The goal is to help show today's science and space research to the scientists of tomorrow.

NASA May Brighten Life Science Lighthouse

Partnering with NABT, OBPR's Educational Outreach Program is developing ways to bring space research to educators. OBPR supplies a variety of materials that showcase the science of shuttle mission STS-107 and are designed to capture the interest of both students and the general public through hands-on, minds-on activities in science centers, museums, and classrooms. "We see NASA research as an incredibly engaging way to bring people into the world of science," says Wayne Carley, executive director of NABT. "NABT is unique to other [educational organizations], because it can target the specific disciplines in biology. It has a content-based approach from the middle school classroom to the college campus." NABT's membership, 9,000 strong, comprises 70 percent high school teachers, 20 percent college professors, and 10 percent junior high or middle school educators.

Left: Spinning in a rotating chair, a participant points his thumbs either to the left or to the right, illustrating how the body's system of balance is affected by microgravity.

Plans are under way for OBPR to exhibit at the association's annual fall conference, held this year in Cincinnati, Ohio, where educators get the opportunity to share experiences and explore the latest issues in the science of life. With a roll call of about 2,000 teachers, the four-day forum will begin October 30, 2002, and feature more than 300 presentations, general sessions, invited speakers, hands-on workshops, demonstrations, and field trips. It also will have about 100 exhibits with products and services to help biology teachers in the classroom and the laboratory. One such exhibit, the OBPR booth with the theme "Space Research and You," will immerse educators in the science concepts of STS-107 research.

"Selection of the science concepts for STS-107 educational outreach development was based upon three main points," states Bonnie McClain, chief of educational outreach for OBPR. "The goal was to highlight science research subjects that are included in high school curricula, subjects that demonstrate the impact space research has on people every day, and ones that are the focus of additional investigations flown aboard the International Space Station. Connecting these research concepts to the classroom is not time-sensitive to this one space mission. We believe these materials are substantive, high-interest learning tools that teachers and students will value." Carley finds the cutting-edge fundamental biology research NASA conducts especially valuable to NABT members: "We have members who teach subjects such as neurobiology and human performance and could use direct examples of space research in these areas in their lesson plans."

NABT publishes American Biology Teacher and News & Views to keep its membership informed and provide teaching resources. The organization's web site, at http://www.nabt.org, has links to science updates, experiment guides, professional opportunities, and much more. "Soon the web site will serve as a platform for members to interact," Carley says. "We're developing an electronic journal to bring new kinds of content to the community."

Both NASA and NABT are excited about the potential this partnership holds. As NABT's mission statement declares, the association empowers educators to provide the best possible biology and life science education for all students. Its navigation and resource capabilities continue to flourish in partnership with NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research.

Web Links

Space Research and You -- OBPR's Special Web Feature highlighting the research activities of the STS-107 Shuttle Mission.

NASA Human Space Flight -- The NASA Web site that features information about the Space Shuttle and Space Station.

SpaceResearch News -- The OBPR Quarterly newsletter. This article was from the Summer 2002 issue.