Space Week Science Challenge winners announced

Jaque Klein (left) and Haleigh Sutherland, won an internal competition of the eighth grade science class at St. Albert Junior-Senior High School in Council Bluffs.  Their entry then won first place in the annual Space Week Science Challenge.

Excitement was high when the winners of the sixth annual Space Week Science Challenge were announced in November.  First-place winners of the contest, sponsored by the Iowa Space Grant Consortium and Iowa State University Extension, are Ms. Tarra Beyer's eighth grade science class at St. Albert Junior/Senior High School in Council Bluffs.  Second place went to the first grade class, taught by Mrs. Becky Chipman, at New Park Elementary School in Harlan.

The St. Albert eighth graders will receive a Meade ETX Astro telescope, a Garmin e-TREX GPS receiver and a trip to the Science Center of Iowa and IMAX in Des Moines or the Science Station and IMAX in Cedar Rapids. The teachers at their school will receive an inservice training session and curriculum materials from ISU's Extension-Science Engineering and Technology.

Second place went to the first grade class at New Park Elementary School in Harlan.

As the top classroom entry in the K-3 category, the New Park Elementary first graders were also awarded a Meade ETX Astro telescope. In addition, every teacher who submitted an entry will receive a TiViTz Game.

The competition is held every year in conjunction with Space Week, Oct. 4-10. Any Iowa classroom of students--public, private, charter, religious or home-schooled--is eligible to enter. The students listen to a 3-minute podcast each day during the contest. This year the podcasts focused on the NASA astronomy missions and featured several scientists from those missions, including Dr. Phil Plait, who works with the GLAST Mission and is perhaps best known from the Web site Bad Astronomy. Classroom activities connected to the astronomy theme were available through links on the Consortium's Web site.

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Instead of taking a quiz as in past years, classes entered in this year's Challenge designed and developed a project explaining to the public one of the featured missions. The entry could be in any format, including an essay, a brochure, or a video or audio clip in newscast or public service announcement form. Entries were judged on accuracy and completeness of information, audience appeal, creativity and appearance.

The winning entry of the St. Albert students was a Power Point presentation entitled "New Horizons Trip to Pluto."  The students were very excited and surprised.  "We were freaking out," said Haleigh Sutherland. "I am excited for our road trip to Des Moines."  Their teacher was very proud of them for all the work they did.  "You can tell they put a lot of time and effort into their project," said Ms. Beyer.  "They have represented St. Albert very well."

The first graders from New Park Elementary prepared a brochure called "STEREO: Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory."  The announcement of the winners was met with shrieks and squeals of delight.

The Space Week Science Challenge held another enticement for participating teachers: They were able to enter a drawing for a trip to the Space Exploration Educators Conference on February 8-10 in Houston, Texas. The winning teachers were Becky Chipman, New Park Elementary School, Harlan; Brenda Drake, AGWSR Middle School, Wellsburg; and Julie Meneough, IKM Middle School, Wellsburg.  After attending the conference, each of the teachers will conduct some form of professional development to disseminate activities, lessons or other educational opportunities gained at the conference.