Marissa (Ill.) students send experiments into space

Some Marissa (Ill.) High School science students have studied outer space since seventh grade. And they've had their experiments aboard NASA space shuttles.

And, this year, they're joining high school students from Queensland, Australia, in another space experiment to be launched later this year.

Their Project Aria experiment this year will involve sending sunflower seeds and yeast into space. When the samples get back, the students will compare them to other seeds and yeast that stayed on Earth. Project Aria is supervised by Washington University.

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Special note: In a recent exchange of e-mails, students from Deception Bay High School in Australia sent condolences for the recent terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

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When this year's samples return from space this fall, the Marissa students expect help from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. An agriculture professor will assist the students in making comparative tests.

A year ago, the kids sent corn, lettuce and bean seeds into space and kept a duplicate set on Earth. When the space samples got back, they tried to grow plants from both sets of seeds.

They found some big differences.

Senior Melanie Dickey said none of the lettuce seeds from space germinated while the "earth" seeds all grew into lettuce plants. The corn seeds from both samples germinated but the plants from "space" seeds started to tassel when only a foot high.

Juniors Amy Hagen, Chelsea Kinzel and Alyssa Lewis are doing a follow-up experiment on lettuce seeds this year. They'll try to duplicate the rapid, severe temperature changes in space to see if that's what killed the seeds.

Science teacher Fred Lewis said, "Our theory is that the temperature fluctuations as the space shuttle rotated the Earth was the equivalent of putting the seeds through 180 winters and summers in 11 days."

This year, the lettuce experiments will all be earthbound. The students will alternate the seeds between the cold of dry ice and the warmth of a space heater to duplicate the temperature changes in space.

Hagen, Kinzel and Lewis will present their findings to a adult science symposium at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale next spring.

That's just one of the neat experiences the kids have gotten out of their space work.

Senior Gina Gilley said her favorite experience was when kids got to go to Florida last year to watch a shuttle launch. "It was neat that we got to see our stuff going up in space," she said.

Alyssa Lewis said she liked the opportunity to build from scratch all the containers for the experiments. For instance, the carrier for seeds in space was a cabinet built out of old stop signs and plastic fencing used for crowd control during the Pope's visit to St. Louis.

Some of the seed containers were used plastic Sunny Delight orange juice bottles. Despite the odd mixture of parts, NASA checked each in advance to make sure it could withstand space travel.

Teacher Lewis said, "They even checked the labels on the seed vials to make sure the glue would hold up to the temperature changes."

Other equipment the students helped to build included "grow labs" at school where the seeds were germinated. Also, they hooked up plastic bottles and tubing so seeds could be grown without soil. This is a process called hydroponics.

Senior Lindsey Erb said her favorite experience was the opportunity to work "with a big group like NASA that was interested in what we were doing."

Chelsea Kinzel said she's always been interested in outer space. And, she thought it was a "big deal for me to get involved with NASA."

Senior Renee Sellers admitted she didn't know much about space science when she started. "But, I liked learning from NASA. That taught me lots of stuff."

Renee said her work on the space science experiments has her considering aeronautical engineering as a possible career field.

Chelsea also is looking for a science career but it's going to be on solid ground. She's considering a career in forensics, where she would work in a lab to help solve crimes.

Melanie Dickey's career interest is more in social sciences, "probably psychology." She's looking at a couple private Christian colleges, Huntington College in Indiana and John Brown College in Arkansas. She said she has friends from Marissa who have gone there.

Gina Gilley is looking at a career in nursing while Amy Hagen hopes to pursue a law degree at either University of Illinois at Champaign or Washington University in St. Louis.