Teachers Conduct Experiments Flying on Reduced Gravity NASA Flights

While flying onboard NASA astronaut training and research aircraft which create weightlessness, over 70 teachers got a chance to experience what astronauts feel in the weightlessness of space.

The teachers, last week, were taking part in the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA uses aircraft which fly in a parabolic flight paths. As the aircraft transitions from climb to descent brief periods of weightlessness are created as the occupants of the aircraft free-fall inside.

According to the statement from NASA, the training in the aircraft is a key component of NASA’s astronaut training protocol. The agency said that the teachers were selected for the flights through NASA’s Teaching from Space and Explorer School Programs.

NASA Associate Administrator for Education and two-time space shuttle astronaut Leland Melvin also participated in some of the flights and shared first-hand with the participants his experiences in astronaut training.

Participating with the teachers was two-time space shuttle astronaut Leland Melvin. “The enthusiasm among our teachers participating in the reduced gravity flights is contagious,” Melvin said. “I know it will add a new dimension to their teaching as they engage their students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies (STEM).”
The Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program is a part of NASA’s continued efforts to encourage education in the U.S. by helping attract and retain students in STEM disciplines critical to future space exploration.

Not just for fun, in preparation for the flight, the teachers had worked with their students to design and build the experiments they took on the flights.

More information about NASA’s education activities can be found online at http://www.nasa.gov/education