Students from Johnson Street Global Studies in High Point have created a science experiment that will soon fly aboard the SpaceX Dragon, a commercial spacecraft on its first trip to the International Space Station. The experiment will look at how quickly food spoils in outer space.

“One of the astronauts is going to bend the main volume, kind of how you would bend a glow stick, which will break the glass ampule, allowing the mold spores to grow. A few days later, they are going to bend the other half of it releasing the fixative so the growth will stop,” said Alison Manka, seventh and eighth grade science teacher at Johnson Street Global Studies.

Manka added, “We will have the exact same experiment running here on Earth in regular gravity in our classroom, so depending on that it could change what types of foods are brought up into space.”

Johnson Street Global Studies is one of eleven student teams from across the country selected to conduct an experiment during the flight.

The school is partnering with the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN) in Greensboro to help analyze the results of the space experiment.

Manka said the project is helping spur interest in STEM-related fields, of science, technology, engineering and math.

“We were held to strict NASA standards everything had to go through all of their chemical and safety reviews, and the students got an invaluable lesson on what you have to do to be a good scientist. It’s not just about going to space, it’s about learning to work together as a group, to learn to research and to want keep going even when things get hard,” said Manka.

This is the second time Guilford County Schools will participate in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.