00:00So, Ms. Renfro, the Starwood STEM project came to Douglas Bird School when?
00:12It actually started this past summer, where they trained teachers in project-based learning and set the stage for what we were to do for the rest of the year.
00:22Okay. An exciting idea to compete at so many different levels because you had in the Douglas Bird subsystem of the Cumberland County Schools, you had involvement at almost every level, right?
00:38That's right. And the elementary schools, you know, competed against each other.
00:45And then the middle and high schools competed against each other, but they also had an at-large.
00:49And you competed within your school first and then moved on to the next level and then competed in the Douglas Bird District.
00:58And I think next year it moves on to other schools besides the Douglas Bird District as well.
01:03It's a three-year grant.
01:05That's wonderful. And the grant was administered by who?
01:11I think it was jointly administered by RTI at a Research Triangle Park and Cumberland County Schools.
01:19Okay. Well, I was impressed that it had really two different sections.
01:26Can you explain the – and it was a whole semester process, as I gather, right?
01:33So, the first part of it was to observe a condition, and it was electrical generation on Mars?
01:44Well, every classroom got to do, you know, what they wanted to do as far as that project.
01:51You were learning about project-based learning was the idea.
01:56And so, each classroom – if you're a biology classroom, you don't want to talk about electrical generation necessarily.
02:02But in our Academy of Green Technology, that's what we study, renewable energy.
02:06So, we chose our project.
02:10So, we'll teach renewable energy still, but we have a project that we based that around, and it was electrifying basically a Mars station.
02:20Wow. Wow.
02:21And then your experiment you had to devise after that was another subset of the same process, I'm guessing.
02:32And you came up with a great experiment, and you worked on this for how long?
02:39Was it a semester, three months?
02:42Was it –
02:43It was about a semester.
02:44It was at least three months.
02:46We started – it's a little longer than a semester because we started after school.
02:50And then we moved to doing some of it in a class and after school.
02:57So, yeah, we spent at least a semester on the project.
03:00Fantastic.
03:01And the prize or the object was to devise an experiment that could actually be conducted on the International Space Station.
03:11Is that an amazing – is that an amazing vision to be able to make one of these?
03:21Did – did all four students come devise the experiment together with your guides?
03:29Absolutely.
03:30Everybody was involved.
03:32So, just from research to – we had to prepare videos.
03:36You had to understand what you were doing, right?
03:39So, you had to learn about chemistry.
03:42And they may not have even had chemistry class yet, but now they know quite a bit.
03:47And to how you devise the experiment.
03:49So, they sat down with myself and with Dr. Jonathan Breitzer from Fayetteville State University and worked all those details out.
03:59They learned about STEM, about how the process of science works.
04:03It was pretty nifty.
04:03Well, I think it's just outstanding.
04:06Now, Jakari, I'm going to address this one to you.
04:11Did you have a concept for how all of this was going to come together?
04:15What was your special interest when you joined this project?
04:21Well, it was more, like, about the fact that seeing how excited everybody was about it makes you excited about it.
04:33And it makes you want to learn and figure out whether this actually is happening or seeing how this is happening or why this is happening.
04:42And learning about it and being able to talk about it like it's like a cup of milk in front of you.
04:48And you just know everything about it just from, you know, learning it or drinking it, that same milk every day.
04:54And it's amazing, you know.
04:57Outstanding.
04:59Maya Sanchez, I want to find out what you felt was your contribution to the group.
05:07Well, I'll say I started with the research with Ms. Renfro.
05:18We both came up with the title.
05:21You know, we changed it throughout the process to fit the project.
05:25But I'll say I was there to help my teammates, you know, when they had trouble, when they got stressed.
05:34I'll be like, OK, calm down.
05:36We can do this.
05:37We get we got this.
05:38We're going to do OK.
05:39I feel like my contribution was mainly with writing the paper, but also the fact that my classmates are understanding of how shy I am with the camera.
05:59They would just be there for me as well.
06:01So I feel like we're a good group and we stick together.
06:04Connor Berkery, you know, you had a part of this collaboration as well.
06:13And were there any times when you were devising the experiment and working out the intricacy of how you're going to integrate the technologies together that you needed to solve this?
06:29Is there anything that you particularly observed in the group dynamic that you want to mention, talk about?
06:43I did enjoy watching us all working together on the project, especially when we were doing certain different parts.
06:51We were learning from also each other and learning together at the same time.
06:54There was nothing in particular, but it was extremely fun, and I'm glad I was able to do it.
07:05Well, my congratulations to all of you.
07:09Joshua Goins, your observations as to, you know, the collaborative nature and the fact that you're all kind of learning new things together,
07:18and you've got to get past areas that, you know, were sticky at times, I'm sure.
07:26What are your thoughts?
07:28Well, I think this was a very great learning experience.
07:31It really helped us really bond together as students and friends.
07:35And I feel like we all put in our work some way, and we just, we got it done, and we just make a great team.
07:43Well, I think all of you did so well, and to get the recognition to actually have an experiment that you guys devised,
07:52conducted on the International Space Station, I think is extra special.
07:59You know, when I was in school, you can tell by the color of my hair, probably it was a few years back,
08:04I think we were mixing, you know, Coca-Cola, or not Coca-Cola, but vinegar and baking soda, you know.
08:12So I think you've taken a few steps down the line in terms of complexity.
08:19And Ms. Renfro, I want you, you mentioned Dr. Jonathan Breitzer from FSU helped with the chemistry part of this.
08:29Could you describe the actual experiment which dealt with corrosion on a Mars lander or a Mars explorer?
08:41Can you explain what the problem that the students solved was or attempted to get at?
08:50Sure.
08:51So they had noticed in an article that the Mars rover had corrosion on its wheels.
08:57They, that's what the article was about.
09:00And the article also mentioned that they think that it's perchlorates that cause that corrosion,
09:05because there's not a lot of oxygen that we normally think with corrosion or rust,
09:10and there's waters frozen, right?
09:12That's there.
09:13And so we just decided as a group, that sounds like a cool thing to try.
09:18At first, we weren't sure we'd be able to even do it.
09:20You know, like, how are we going to test this?
09:22But with Dr. Breitzer's help, we figured it out.
09:24And basically, they put a little bit of the metal that's on the rover's wheel, the same type of metal.
09:31We can purchase that.
09:33And we got imitation Martian soil, which you can actually purchase on Amazon, believe it or not.
09:40Wow.
09:40And added perchlorates to it.
09:44And then the astronauts will unclamp that.
09:48They'll be in two sides of a tube.
09:49It's a really small experiment.
09:51But the astronauts will unclamp it and mix it together in microgravity.
09:55Well, microgravity is not Mars, right?
09:57It's microgravity.
09:58It's zero gravity.
09:59So how do you get it to relate to Mars?
10:01So we'll do the same thing on Earth, in Earth gravity.
10:04And then we'll compare the rate of corrosion on those metals in microgravity and Earth's gravity.
10:11And Mars is in between.
10:13So we'll interpolate what that might be.
10:17And that should give us an idea of the rate of corrosion on Mars.
10:20And as the students said in their paper, in their video, it might be important if you're going to put, you know, an outpost on Mars, it might be important to know how things corrode when you're 186 million miles from the closest lows.
10:38So, you know, that's basically where we're at with this.
10:42And, of course, we're waiting to see.
10:44It's not up there yet.
10:46So we still will go in the fall, in October sometime, it looks like, to watch the launch of our stuff up to the International Space Station.
10:55Well, I think that that's just so spectacular.
10:59And the fact that you reduced it down to a real size, knowing that for everything that they've got to take up to the International Space Station, no one experiment is going to get too much space.
11:12So to reduce it down to something, you know, is really just outstanding planning.
11:19And what makes me real proud is just an observer is that you guys worked through all of this and brought it down to functional, practical experiment that can be conducted.
11:37And I think that the things that you learned in your life, and you're hearing this from a guy who's almost 70, the things that you learned putting this together.
11:49I can't even get my head around what kind of future endeavors you guys have in front of you, because you've learned a great deal in the collaborative process.
12:05You've learned a great deal in science that you may not have known when you first got together.
12:11And Ms. Renfro, as the coordinator for all this activity, we tip our caps to you for, you know, not only taking four bright students, but getting them to work out an intricate scientific experiment capable of being conducted on the International Space Station in the space of a few months with students that I can walk down the street and wave to.
12:38You know, I'm proud of you, you know, I'm proud of you, you know, I'm proud of all you guys. Great job.
12:42Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
12:44Thank you so much.
12:46Indeed. And now, let's see, I'm going to ask about the special Douglas Bird connection you had as the experiment was presented. You heard from Tony Antonelli?
13:01Yeah, we did hear from Tony Antonelli. I had been aware of Mr. Antonelli prior, my husband used to teach here, and he ran the school newspaper, they interviewed him.
13:14Oh, so I was excited to meet him. I even told him that. But yeah, it was really neat to see a Douglas Bird graduate come back. And then for our kids to, you know, be able to win the contest to go up, that was kind of special, too.
13:29So it was, I think they all met him. We had our picture taken with him, talked to him for a few minutes, and then he showed pictures from space, which were just awe-inspiring from his trip. So it was a wonderful opportunity to talk with and meet Mr. Antonelli.
13:44Former astronaut, former Douglas Bird graduate himself, Tony Antonelli. Thank you again for your time, Joshua Goins, Maya Sanchez, Connor Berkery, Jakari West, and you, Denise Renfro. Thank you for your work in helping with this collaboration. It excites me, and I join the rest of the community in saluting you. Thanks for being with us on TalkBack this morning.
