School project gets NASA treatment

Four Glacier High School teachers are back in the classroom after spending a week with NASA engineers at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Science teachers Todd Morstein, David Hembroff and Todd Robins and math teacher Brad Holloway participated in NASA’s Microgravity Experience at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Their mission: to conduct an experiment researched and tested by Glacier High School students about 30,000 feet above the ground in conditions of zero gravity.

The Glacier High School Microgravity Team also included Texas science teacher Tonya York, who helped Morstein write the initial experiment, “A Breath of Fresh Air,” as a classroom activity for NASA’s Math and Science Project.

Glacier High School Advanced Placement chemistry, physics and statistics classes worked to collect data, make calculations, test and revise the experiment before shipping it to Houston the week before the teachers departed.

The experiment was to conduct electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen and oxygen and simulate what happens when water captured on the International Space Station is turned into breathable oxygen.

Morstein described the process:

“When two electrodes — wires — are placed into a solution of water and a salt or acid, bubbles form on the electrodes. On one electrode you form oxygen bubbles and the other electrode hydrogen bubbles. With gravity, the bubbles float upward ... When there is no gravity, the bubble forms around the electrode.

“When the bubble forms at zero g the process stops. To keep the process from stopping we made the electrolytic cell — reaction vessel — spin so that the bubbles are driven to the center and the fluid is driven outward by centripetal force. So by spinning it we can keep the electrodes in the solution and the bubbles will flow away from them.”

To simulate micro- and hyper-gravity, the plane performed a series of climbs and dips. There were two flights and teachers were split up in pairs for each one. Robins, Holloway, Morstein and York went on the flights to conduct the experiment.

Originally, the two flights were to take place over two days, but just as shuttle expeditions get postponed due to weather, so was the teachers’ scheduled flight. Instead both flights were in one day. Hembroff remained on the ground to reset the experiment in the hour between flights.

Morstein said 30-second increments of weightlessness in zero gravity felt like a long time.

“We were pressed to the floor at two g’s. As we came out of two g’s we started lifting off and could float around the plane,” Morstein said. “People were hopping around like astronauts on the moon.”

Before taking flight, the team met with NASA staffers.

“When we got down there the level of interaction we had with the NASA engineers and with some of the astronauts was beyond what we expected,” Hembroff said.

Morstein said one of the tensest parts of the experience was the safety check and evaluation of their experiment apparatus before engineers, flight personnel and astronauts.

“We had to present it and kind of defend it. They needed to know we understood the safety of our apparatus — no guessing — we had to have the small details figured out,” Morstein said. “The test readiness review was like defending a master’s thesis all over again.”

The actual experiment was contained in a clear “glove box” with two other containment boxes.

Hembroff said this safety factor is important in space flight. That’s why there is more than one containment box.

“NASA is trying to emphasize safety first. When you’re in space and something goes wrong, that’s it. People think, ‘Well I can just get by.’ Well, not in space,” Hembroff said.

The teachers now are analyzing data collected from the experiment and gained a lot of knowledge for practical application in the classroom. Both agreed they could see many students working in a setting such as NASA, including students focused on technical or trade schools.

“We got to talk to the lead engineer on the Morpheus System, the next lunar lander they’re working on. One of the most important people on his team was the woman who did the welding,” Hembroff said.

Three students involved with testing the experiment are establishing a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Club at the school.

Senior Josiah Bumgarner and juniors Anna Deleray and Nick LaGrandeur would like to see the club explore more opportunities such as the Microgravity Experience to participate in outside the classroom.

“It was a great experience and a lot of fun to have something you made as a team go up in zero g’s with teachers,” LaGrandeur said.

Bumgarner added: “It’s an honor, most people can’t say they worked on a NASA project.”

For the experiment the students had met with Applied Materials to build the apparatus; these types of professional partnerships are what the teachers would like to see more of.

“We want a way to explore our interests. We’re all interested in science and seeing how it applies in real life,” Deleray said. “We also discussed last year putting on a summer camp for elementary kids through the club to show what students could get involved in, what they could be learning in high school.”

The Microgravity Experience is part of NASA’s Teaching from Space Office. The Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program is a way to provide educational experiences using NASA technology.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com