Award-winning space research by high school students about the
effects of microgravity on butterflies, was honored at the opening
ceremony for Space Day 2000, at the Smithsonian’s National Air and
Space Museum.
The students from Albany, GA, participated in the S*T*A*R*S (TM)
(Space Technology And Research Students) Program in conjunction with
SPACEHAB and the results of their work will be put on display at the
Museum.
The S*T*A*R*S (TM) Program is an education initiative of SPACEHAB
that creates opportunities for students to design and fly scientific
experiments in space.
High school students Julie Blackburn, Leon Douglas and Norman
Batten of the Dougherty County School System High School/High Tech
Program, Albany, Georgia will be on hand along with fellow students,
to present the results of their scientific studies to the museum.
These students designed and managed an experiment conducted aboard
the Space Shuttle that explored how microgravity affects the
development, growth and behavior of Painted Lady butterflies. The
insects which flew in space, as part of this experiment will be
donated to the museum even as other researchers continue to
investigate some of the unexpected results revealed by the experiment.
S*T*A*R*S (TM) is designed to create opportunities for students to
develop and fly experiments aboard the Space Shuttle and, in the near
future aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Student
researchers monitor the experiment through the Internet while
thousands of other students can “look over their shoulders” virtually
while conducting control experiments of their own.
Tens of thousands of students participate directly with more than
one million expected online this year.
The three students have previously been honored by the United
Nations, which recognized their work with the U.N. Outstanding Young
Persons Awards. Those awards were presented during the United Nations
International Day of Disabled Persons last December. Their
disabilities did not stop them from designing and conducting an
ingenious space experiment.
Blackburn is a spina bifida patient and Batten and Douglas possess
a learning disability.
More information about the S*T*A*R*S (TM) Program is available at
www.starsprogram.com. The next S*T*A*R*S* (TM) mission is scheduled
for early next year. For information about Space Day visit
www.spaceday.com. S*T*A*R*S (TM) is operated by Space Media,
Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB.
SPACEHAB, with its Space Media and Astrotech subsidiaries, is the
world’s leading provider of commerce opportunities in space.
