Next year, one group of Eanes students will boldly go where no student in their school has gone before.

About 300 middle-schoolers in the school district are vying to send one groups science experiment to the International Space Station to assess the role gravity plays in a particular chemical or biological system. One small, contained experiment from Eanes is expected to have a spot on a U.S. commercial spacecraft trip in the spring.

By participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, the brainchild of a non-profit and a private company established in 2010 as privatized U.S. space exploration was gaining traction, the Eanes school district joins nine other Texas school districts and 99 districts in America and Canada that have participated in the program so far. The opportunity isnt free Eanes paid $21,500 for the program through district funds.

Eanes officials have launched a community fundraising campaign to participate in future flights. The Eanes fundraising campaign for the project will begin 5:30 p.m. Nov. 13, when students put their projects on display at Westlake High School. The event will also feature a mobile planetarium and a presentation from retired astronaut Marsha Ivins. Individuals or companies interested in supporting the Eanes program should contact Jerri LaMirand at jlamirand@eanesisd.net

While West Ridge Middle School eighth-grader Aubrey Ireland said she has done plenty of science experiments in school labs before, this project is the first time she really feels like a scientist.

In past science classes, theyve always told us about being scientists, but they never let us take charge ourselves, Ireland said. Its kind of like learning a language. You can never learn from a textbook like you can just doing it yourself.

She is part of a team of four girls designing an experiment that will test how fern spores grow when theyre weightless. Ireland, 13, said she loves that the work is hands-on when it comes to researching a project idea, designing the device that will go up, and writing the proposal. The students do all this work themselves.

Its a major undertaking that some found intimidating at first, Eanes students said. But as they researched the concept of weightlessness in space, brainstormed ideas, looked at the programs past experiments and reached out to professional scientists, their excitement grew.

Its a real opportunity to see the research side of science, said Hill Country Middle School teacher Elisabeth Flohr. Its one thing to do activities and labs and blow stuff up, and its another thing to do experiments.

When an unmanned spacecraft exploded in midair Oct. 29, some Eanes students took a personal interest in the news because other districts experiments with the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program were aboard, including students projects from San Antonio and outside Dallas. Hill Country teacher Woodroe Kisers students were asking a lot of questions in class about the rocket failure, Flohr said.

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Eanes experiment going to International Space Station