Launch a Student's Future Today
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), a project of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, will give 647 students in 10 under-served Buffalo and Niagara Falls schools an out of this world opportunity to enhance their science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math studies this fall. SSEP students will experience real-world research by visiting local labs, museums and planetariums, meeting with scientists and expeditioning at The Challenger Center. Teams of students will design their own experiments in microgravity labs, and write a flight proposal. One experimented will be selected to be launched to the International Space Station where it will be carried out in space by real astronauts.Your gift today in any amount will support this project and help the WNY STEM Hub raise the final $18,000 to rocket-boost this program during the fall semester. These funds will cover program expenses, including student excursions to the Challenge Center in Olean, the Niagara Aerospace Museum and the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.
We deeply appreciate the businesses and donors who helped launch this program with more than $23,000 in support:
Buffalo Schools Parent Organizations, Moog, Praxair, Buffalo Teachers Federation, Cannon Design, Covanta Niagara, InfoTech WNY, Wendel, SUNY Buffalo State College, Hamlin Park Taxpayers Association, Niagara County Community College Liberty Partnership Project as well as the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Cornell University National Space Grant Program, Stavatti Aerospace and various individual donors.
Participation in this program is competitive. In approving the plan, NCESSE officials wrote, “We felt that the plan was a tour de force on how a community coalition can come together in exceptional ways around a project that was indeed designed for community engagement in STEM. The level of moral commitment to the next generation is clear, in service to your community, NYS, and indeed by logical extension to the nation.”
In addition to enhancing learning in STEM studies and technical writing skills, students will apply the design process, an important aspect of creativity and innovation. --Students will work with a Young Audience of WNY teaching artist to design a mission patch and will meet with design role models during their process. Kavanaugh says, “Incorporating STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math) is an important part of the STEM Hub’s mission. The arts are part of our lives, and encouraging children to appreciate this is essential to developing the whole person who will lead tomorrow’s workforce.”
According to Kavanaugh, "This project will build on the good work already happening in Buffalo Public Schools through the Mayor and SUNY Trustee Eunice Lewin's STEM initiative, the Buffalo Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership and the STEM efforts of the Buffalo School’s Science and Career Technical Education Departments. The two charter schools involved, Global Concepts and Buffalo Academy of Science, have also made a distinctive commitment to STEM education. Similarly, the Niagara Falls City School District has distinguished itself with innovative STEM electives and is the only school district in New York State to have a STEM Lab in every school."
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) was developed by astrophysicist, Dr. Jeff Goldstein, who founded the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE). The SSEP is undertaken by NCESSE in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC. This on-orbit educational research opportunity is enabled through NanoRacks, LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Stations as a National Laboratory. The program originated in 2010 to address national strategic needs in Workforce Development for the 21st Century designed to inspire the next generation of U.S. scientists & engineers. SSEP has had 10 flight opportunities involving 110 communities in the U.S. and Canada through the first nine flight opportunities, 45,970 grade 5-15 students were fully immersed in microgravity experiment design and proposal writing. This is the first time a cohort of Western New York students will participate.
The WNY STEM Hub is a volunteer-driven incorporated organization with more than 400 individual members representing nearly 200 organizations in Western New York. It is affiliated with the national STEMx network and the Empire State STEM Learning Network. Its aim is to create awareness and partnerships that serve students, teachers and parents in accessing STEM/STEAM learning and careers. Further information can be found at: wnystem.org.
Help tomorrow's workforce reach for the stars today!
