NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, wants to find those high school students that have what it takes to create a science experiment that can be tested in one of its drop towers. Glenn is currently accepting proposals for its annual Dropping In a Microgravity Environment (DIME) competition, which allows students to be scientists and engineers by experiencing the scientific process from inception to end.
DIME is a project-oriented educational program consisting of investigations and design challenges that lasts one school year. DIME links students directly to NASA’s diverse and exciting missions of research, exploration and discovery. By participating in this competition, students develop a hypothesis that can be tested through experimentation and prepare a scientific research proposal.
The program is open throughout the fifty United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to student teams in grades 9 – 12 comprised of groups such as science classes, clubs, or scout troops, and their advisors. To participate, each group must develop an experiment concept that shows a significant effect of gravity to be reduced via a microgravity environment, prepare a proposal and submit it to Glenn. Proposals are judged on criteria including scientific objectives, technical plan, team organization, creativity, attention to detail and originality. Proposals should be postmarked no later than November 1, 2002.
A panel of Glenn microgravity experts will select the top four proposals for further experiment design and development before sending them to Glenn. Four students and one adult advisor from each selected team will travel, at NASA’s expense, to Glenn in April 2003 to attend the DIME Drop Days. For three days, teams will operate the experiments in Glenn’s 2.2 Second Drop Tower and participate in workshops and Center tours. Each team’s drop tower activities will be webcast on the Internet.
More information on the DIME competition, including official rules, is available online: http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/DIME.html
