BLOOMINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO ATTEND SHUTTLE LAUNCH CARRYING THEIR EXPERIMENT

Eleven Bloomington High School North Honors Chemistry students and nine 
Bloomington High School South Advanced Placement Chemistry students are 
gearing up for an April 1st trip to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  These
students will represent Indiana in an ongoing study being conducted by 
NASA, and sponsored locally by Wonderlab.  This past November, these young scientists worked with NASA scientists visiting the Indiana University 
campus to prepare a protein crystal growth experiment.  This experiment, 
which has been frozen since November, is now ready to be transported to the
International Space Station.  Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for 
launch on the afternoon of Thursday, April 4, to take the experiment into 
space.  Once the experiment is aboard the International Space Station, the 
experiment will thaw, which will allow the crystals to grow.  Once the 
crystals are formed, they will be transported back to earth and studied by 
NASA, and eventually returned to the Bloomington schools.

Students will leave Bloomington on April 1, and will attend an honorary 
banquet on April 2 at the Radisson Convention Center in Cocoa Beach, 
FL.  Students will receive a plaque and shirts designed to commemorate the 
launch of their experiment into space.  The students will then have an 
opportunity to tour the Kennedy Space Center facilities, as well as VIP 
viewing of the shuttle launch.

The formation of protein crystals is an important step in the development 
of drugs designed to cure various diseases.  In this experiment, trypsin, a
digestive enzyme, is being crystallized.  NASA hopes to crystallize many 
proteins with this program, which will add vital information to present 
pharmaceutical research.  Companies can then use this information provided 
by NASA to develop new drugs that may cure various digestive disorders.

BHS South students attending include: Ian Enochs, Jessica Green, Meredith 
Holmes, Susan Jacob, Chris Kenrick, Katie Lauer, Brian Loftin, Becca 
Remillard, and Adam Watson.

BHS North students attending are: Katie Cutrera, Lauren Elmore, Ellen 
Frisbee, Kaitlin Henry, Chang Liu, Genevieve Maassen, SanDeep Mehta, Kiran 
Parkhe, Asish Patel, Daniel Winter, and Emily Youse.

Grants to finance the trip were provided by the Indiana Space Grant 
Consortium, under the direction of Indiana University; the Raymond 
foundation; and several area businesses and health professionals.
 

We would like to invite members of the press to cover the story from 
Florida as well.

For more information, contact Jean Schick at BHS North at 812-330-7724, or 
Neil Rapp at BHS South at 812-330-7714, extension 4490.

Text provided by Neil Rapp, WB9VPG

Bloomington, Indiana-High school students from Bloomington are the first in
the state of Indiana to be selected to participate in a special educational
program sponsored by the NASA Microgravity Program. 

Six NASA scientists from the University of California-Irvine will visit Bloomington on Friday, November 30, and work with the students to prepare an experiment that will be conducted in space aboard a shuttle scheduled to launch in March 2002.

"This is an honor for the Bloomington community and a very exciting
opportunity for the students at Bloomington High School North and
Bloomington High School South to apply their classroom experiences to the
real world. It will be memorable for everyone," commented Sarah Franklin,
principal of Bloomington High School North.

Bloomington was chosen as the first Indiana site for the project after Mike
Kersjes, who administers the high school program for NASA, mentioned it to
his friend, Cam Cameron, Indiana University's head football coach. "I'm on
WonderLab's board of directors," said Cameron. "I thought that any
community that valued what WonderLab does would jump at the chance to participate in this NASA program."

WonderLab subsequently made arrangements with the local high schools and
Indiana University, which will host the November 30 event in Chemistry
Building, room 3105. "We welcomed the chance to provide new and exciting
science opportunities for high school students," remarked Karen Stucky,
WonderLab's education director.

The experiment the students will prepare studies the crystallization process of lysozyme, a protein, in the microgravity of outer space. According to
NASA's Kresjes, this is the best way for scientists to get a look at lysozyme's atomic structure, and he says its structure defines its potential
functions. Once a protein's structure is understood, it can be used to create new materials and help design new drugs. He notes that only about 5% of all protein structures have been identified thus far.

During the past six weeks, students in South's AP chemistry class and
North's honors chemistry class have conducted background research and
produced reports. Twelve students from each class will be chosen to prepare
the actual payload with NASA scientists on November 30. These same students will be invited to a VIP section at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch the launch of the space shuttle carrying their work. While at the Kennedy Space Center, they also will be honored at a dinner and receive
souvenir clothing associated with this particular launch. The high schools
will receive recognition plaques for their participation.

Teachers report that students have been inspired by conducting current
research that has a real-world application. Bloomington South teacher Neil
Rapp observed that not only was it thrilling for the students to be chosen
to send an experiment up on a space shuttle, but it will be even more
exciting to see the crystals after the flight. "This program gave the study
of crystal structure a whole new purpose in our class," he said.
His Bloomington North counterpart, Jean Schick, echoes this enthusiasm. She
noted that some students were amazed that they were being asked to do
current research with professional scientists and that they were surprised
by the interdisciplinary nature of scientific endeavors. "The NASA project
demonstrates that science is a multi-displinary adventure, as we study
biology, chemistry, and physics for medicinal and pharmaceutical
applications," she said.

Thus far, high school students from only eight states have become involved
in NASA's three-year-old program. The goal, according to Kresjes, is to
extend the program to all states and more high schools within the participating states. He hopes that Bloomington's high schools will continue to participate in coming years, as well as help involve other Indiana high schools in the program.

There seems to be little doubt about that. According to Eric Ban, assistant
principal for curriculum and instruction at Bloomington South, "having the
opportunity to work with NASA scientists and send an experiment on the
space shuttle are defining moments in any person's learning journey."