A group of students from the Moreno Valley Unified School District (MVUSD) will see their science project launch into space next year after the district was selected for the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) for the second year in a row. The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), in partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, sponsors the program where one district project will be selected to fly aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on SSEP Mission 13, scheduled for launch in the Spring or Summer of 2019.
In June 2018, a project by four Valley View High School students launched to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket for SSEP Mission 12.
The district will invite teachers in grades 6 through 12 to participate. A local committee of district officials and professors from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California Riverside will select three projects to go in front of a national review board at the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. The review board will select the MVUSD project that will travel into space.
The district’s program is under the direction of Dr. Sue Buster, Director of Professional Development and Digital Learning and Professional Development Specialist Emmie Glancy.
“We are thrilled to once again have this opportunity for our students to have the chance to send a project into space,” said Superintendent Dr. Martinrex Kedziora. “The students who participated in last year’s mission earned a unique learning opportunity with real-world applications.”
In addition to the experiment, students will participate in a mission patch design competition. The patches selected will travel with the experiment to the ISS.
“As a community, we are extremely proud to participate in this program for a second year,” said Board of Education President Susan Smith. “We are excited to see the hard work go into all of the projects and hear about the lessons the students learn from this opportunity.”