Can you compost in space? How do you protect astronauts from ultraviolet rays? And will natural food preservatives work as well for space settlers as they do on Earth?

This semester, hundreds of Northland Preparatory Academy students are finding out what it takes to propose untested ideas and do cutting-edge science in orbit. Its a competition pitting 100 groups at NPA against each other in a test of real-world science skills.

And one group of sixth- through 12th-grade students will be rewarded with a spot for their experiment on board the International Space Station.

But seventh-grade general science teacher Susan Brown says the lessons stretch far beyond the realm of space science. During research, the students develop critical reading skills and learn to write persuasively while preparing proposals.

Theyre not just learning the scientific method, theyre learning how to write well and communicate, Brown said. Theyre acting like real scientists because, in fact, one of them is going up to space.

Theres a lot of reading and writing that goes into a real-world science career, said NPA science teacher and competition organizer Kaci Heins. Its not just blowing stuff up.

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The project came about after Heins learned of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program from a friend whose class flew an experiment on the Space Shuttle. The program, hosted by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, drew headlines earlier this month with an 11-year-old boys plan to send a tiny brewery into space inside one of their 6-inch tubes.

Heins has already played a role in having NPA students speak to astronauts on the ISS via ham radio. And NPA has also sent low-gravity experiments to near-space on high-altitude balloons. But to have astronauts actually carry out a student experiment is truly rare.

The opportunity might not seem out of the ordinary in Flagstaff, the worlds first STEM city (for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). But it is unusual for students in a small-city school to send experiments to space. Most of the participants typically come from places like New York City and Houston.

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Space race: Hundreds of NPA students compete to have an experiment aboard space station