Colby Boehm
Falcon Heights resident Colby Boehm and fellow students in the Applied Research and Engineering class at Minnehaha Academy, 3100 W. River Parkway, Minneapolis, are beginning work on two experiments destined for the International Space Station.
This will be the fourth year that Minnehaha Academy students have sent an experiment into space and the first year that students will have the opportunity to send two experiments to the Space Station.
Students work with experts in the field to develop their experiments and to prepare for launch day. These mentors work with the students weekly, providing support and guidance as the teams work through the entire process, from developing concepts, to designing and creating experiments, to ensuring their work will meet the guidelines for materials’ launch on a NASA rocket.
Team One’s experiment will study vibration cancellation in micro-gravity. Team Two is designing an experiment that will study the effects of light on the direction of plant growth in a micro-gravity environment.
You can follow along as the two teams progress through their experiments on their blog, minnehahaiss.wordpress.com. Working models of the experiments are due on Dec. 7, and they will be launched at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in spring 2016.
