Only two Canadian schools are participating in the internationally acclaimed Cubes in Space program, and both are OCSB schools. Students enrolled in the Program for Gifted Learners (PGL) classes at St. Brother Andre and St. Andrew Schools were part of a global design competition for students 11-18 years of age world-wide to develop STEM-based experiments for launch into space.
The PGL student proposal, submitted on an Intent to Fly Form similar to those used by NASA engineers, was selected from among thousands of student submissions. The proposed experiment tests cosmic radiation’s effect on the molecular structure of EpiPen solution and pure epinephrine.
Their student’s experiment had to fit inside a 4cm cube for space travel on a NASA-sounding rocket, with a second cube holding the same compounds for travel on a high-altitude scientific balloon mission. Students teamed up with professor Paul Mayer in the OttawaU Chemistry and Biomolecular Science Department to learn about molecules and the equipment needed to complete the experiment.
The experiments will be returned to St. Brother Andre in October for the post-spaceflight experiments. Watch for the results on the PGL Twitter account @PGLSBA.
Keep up with the student’s progress on Twitter by following @StAndrewPGL and @PGLSBA.