The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum as seen from the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM), the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education are proud to host the 2013 SSEP National Conference at the Museum on July 2 and 3, 2013.
Delegations from 12 SSEP communities will be in attendance, with oral presentations from 15 student microgravity research teams.
All student teams that were engaged in SSEP experiment design and proposal writing—across all six SSEP flight opportunities to date (SSEP on STS-134 and STS-135, and Missions 1, 2, 3 and 4 to ISS)—were invited to attend their own research conference with their teachers and school administrators, and their families. The conference provides a formal gathering place where students present on their experiment designs, and those teams that flew experiments report results.
An invitation was also warmly extended to representatives of the over 350 partnering organizations, including underwriting institutions, and research institutions whose researchers have been engaged as expert advisors and as members of Step 1 Proposal Review Boards, and to members of the SSEP Step 2 Review Boards.
The SSEP National Conference is taking place in one of the most visited museums on the planet, and in the Moving Beyond Earth gallery. A section of the gallery will remain open to the public so that the conference can be part of the public visitorship experience.
The conference was also scheduled immediately before July 4th in the nation’s capital, so that attendees can stay on and watch the 4th of July fireworks on the National Mall.
For an overview of the Conference agenda, descriptions of the student oral presentations, and descriptions of featured presentations, you are invited to visit the 2013 SSEP National Conference page.
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with NanoRacks LLC, working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), Carnegie Institution of Washington, NASA Nebraska Space Grant Consortium, and Subaru of America, Inc., are National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.
