Community News 02.11.2019
ISSET X MISSION DISCOVERY SPACE CAMP 2019
by Celine Hiew
From the 21st to the 25th of October, I participated in an ISSET (International Space School Education Training) X Mission Discovery competition in Singapore. The aim of the competition was for each team in the competition to create an experiment that could be performed on the International Space Station. The winning team would have their experiment sent to the ISS, prepare the experiment themselves and would join the 4 other finalists in visiting Google Headquarters in Singapore.
Google Headquarters Singapore.
On the first day, I arrived at Stamford American International School (where the event was taking place), signed in, collected my lanyard with my own unique ID (MDSG119), then headed over to the Reagan Theatre. There, along with about 300 other 12-18 year olds, I listened to a talk by Ms. Sarah L. Murray (NASA’s Deputy of Orion Vehicle Systems Performance and Analysis) about NASA Team Building. After that, I walked to Franklin Block 03-14 and got to know my team, Team 7. There were Anusha B., Jonathon L., Kim, David, Gulardi T., Morgan L., Isabel T., Andy G., D. Hearn, and me. Then, we thought of a name for our team. Soon, we hit on the name Covalent because of the lab joke “the name is Bond, Covalent Bond”. Even though it was a bit strange, it worked, because our team number was 7. The next thing we did was have lunch, then we were given a talk by Mr. Dominic Antonelli (NASA Astronaut) about life on Mars and enjoyed watching our ‘eggstronauts’ try to land in the spacecrafts we had improvised. After that, we were dismissed.
Our Team Members
The next day, we were told by Mr. Gregory Smith that we would start brain-storming for ideas for the experiment. He gave us a presentation about the terms and conditions before letting us start thinking. We hurried over to our room and started thinking. At the start, we came up with many ideas, and, not knowing what to do with so many ideas, started narrowing them down to fit into the terms and conditions. At the end of the day, instead of 20 ideas, we had 8
Upon coming back on day 3, we were given advice from Dr. Hannah Wilson (King’s College Lecturer) about citing, narrowing down, and voting. Then my team went back to our room and started voting. In the end, we came up with the idea of having our experiment be about Urease Activity in Microgravity.
On day 4, we got to work on the presentations and started practising them. I was given a slide on Materials and Costs, which I shared with D. Hearn.
Finally, the day everyone waited for: Day 5 (Judging Day)! We went into 5 rooms with 7 groups and 1 judge in each. Our judge was Dr. Hannah Wilson. I was very nervous, but I knew there weren’t many people. All of us started fidgeting, so Jonathon grabbed some lab coats and told us to put them on. He said that they would make us look professional, and, if we put our hands in our pockets, would stop us from fidgeting in plain view of the audience. I must say that the lab coats actually worked! After giving a (nearly!) flawless presentation, we waited for the results of the 5 finalists. Those 5 teams would have to give their presentation to all 300+ participants and the judges. Soon, they announced the results: Teams 2, 7, 10, 30, 19 were finalists!
I was really happy and really nervous, but knew that if we won this part of the competition, we would get to work with NASA. This time, after giving our presentations, the judges dismissed everyone and worked on the results. After 20 excruciatingly long minutes, they announced that Team 7 was the winning team! I was really surprised and if I have a chance to do that course again, I would definitely go.
WALK FOR FREEDOM, 19TH OCTOBER
I would like to thank all the students, parents and staff who turned up on Saturday 19th October to support the first A21 Walk for Freedom to take place in Borneo. We raised RM 1000, and just as importantly, we hope that we have raised awareness of this growing crime. Thank you for everyone’s support.
