High school students conducting experiments and analyzing data with
aerospace engineers? It may sound like a preview for the newest teen
movie, but that’s exactly what will happen April 23 – 25 when NASA’s
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, hosts the Dropping In a Microgravity
Environment (DIME) program.
DIME Drop Days consist of four high school teams who bring the
experiments that they designed and built over the past several months
to operate in Glenn’s 2.2 Second Drop Tower. Each experiment will be
videotaped and analyzed using a Glenn-developed video analysis program
called Tracker. This program, which is used by microgravity
researchers, digitizes motion in video data. Teams will alternately
conduct their initial drop tower experiments and participate in
LEGO™ Challenge, an engineering design activity, on Tuesday,
April 23 from 1 – 4 p.m.
“This year’s DIME program is really special because we had more
student group applications with a broad range of topics,” said Richard
DeLombard, DIME program creator and engineer in Glenn’s Microgravity
Science Division. “I’m really impressed with the innovative
experiments that will be performed in the drop tower-it will be a
tremendous educational opportunity.”
The p
