Einstein Celebrates Student Spaceflight Experiment Contest Semi-Finalists

Einstein Middle School held a ceremony for Shoreline students’ proposals for the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, Wednesday afternoon.

This year, over 500 students from Highland Terrace Elementary School and Einstein Middle School participated in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program competition.

Faculty, students, and parents gathered in the Einstein cafeteria to honor the top tier of student experiment proposals. Out of around 60 team proposals, 20 were selected as semi-finalists. 

Einstein's Principal, Stephanie Clark, began the ceremony by thanking the teachers, parents, mentors and judges that contributed to the effort.

She also thanked community donors, like the Shoreline Foundation and the Wong family, who contributed approximately $20,000 to the program, which allowed all Einstein 8th graders and Highland Terrace 6th graders to design an experiment.

The proposals were scored by experts, in different fields of science, from universities, including the University of Washington and Stanford.

The students conceptualized experiments that would answer questions, like "How does microgravity affect the propagation of the Grifola Frondosa fungus?"

The judges remarked that many of these experiment proposals were "college-level type work."

Eighth graders Dominique Boyer, Danna Nunez and Marie Zapanta, who worked on their "Crystal Growth in Microgravity" proposal for a few weeks, said that they were shocked that they were selected as semi-finalists.

The winning experiment will be conducted at the International Space Station this September.