Making a Splash in Microgravity with Teachers

PPPL recently entered into a three-year Space Act Agreement with NASA to create a new K-12 research experience for teachers where they y an experiment on the ``Weightless Wonder''. One team comprises six teachers from the Trenton Public School District, ranging in focus from K-2 special education to 9-12 teachers, who were selected for their enthusiasm for science and desire to incorporate a research project into their curriculum. They conducted an experiment that observed the splashes resulting from the water entry of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic steel balls where the change in gravity affects the resulting splash dynamics. The program also requires concurrent curriculum development incorporating the project into their classes. The teachers and students from the same district will analyze the data and use inform the experiment to be own in 2012. We report on the results of the experiment, the subsequent implementation of the curricula, and the initial impact on the students.