Klein Launches Space Initiative
Courtesy of the Klein ISD
Creativity can take us places we’ve never been before. For some in Klein ISD, that place could be space.
This year throughout the district, students and teachers are planning to go above and beyond, literally. Students and teachers are teaming up this year to participate in a real world STEM project. These teams are going to be competing against one another for a chance to have their creation launched into space by the international space station.
“Teams of students in grades 5-12 are participating in a competition to design and experiment to test the effect of microgravity on a system.” organizer of Klein in Space, Michele Thompson said. “The system could be a physical, chemical or biological system. Teams need to write a technical proposal. A second part is an art contest to design a mission patch.”
Since this particular situation requires teamwork, students and teachers are working together to make this project a success.
“We all work together as a team nobody has a specific job,” freshman Caroline Crocco said.
With a project like Klein in Space it brings excitement within the STEM community, but there could be something that excites someone the most out of the whole project.
What excites me most is the idea that I might actually get to see something that I made get sent up to space — Caroline Crocco
Nevertheless this project does need to create something. With Biology teacher Ashley Argryos’ team it’s still up for discussion.
“It’s a work in progress, so was deciding a final experiment because we knew were going to be working on this for at least a year,” freshman Yahya Bana said. “We’re still thinking about it.”
As students are creating, they are learning and obtaining skills that can possibly help them in the future.
“A previous school district that I worked with didn’t have opportunities like this and I think it’s great that they can work with their classmates and make a project that can potentially go up into space,” Argryos said.
