07 SEP. 2011
publication date
4140
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Students aged 10–14 years are able to perform their own identical experiments and discover how convection and foams differ under the influence of gravity compared to the Station’s weightless environment.
EPO CONVECTION
Schools can order the educational kits by clicking the link on the right of this page.
This demonstration illustrates to students on a small scale how thermal gradients drive convective currents and thus, on the large scale of a planet, how temperature gradients influence density-driven convection and create atmospheric and oceanic currents.
EPO FOAM-Stability
This experiment demonstrates physical properties of wet foams and how gravity influences stability as well as how understanding foam formation and stability can help us make cutting-edge materials. André will show to students how a foam is created from pure water in microgravity, and observe its stability.
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Schoolchildren joined the event from four European cities including Thessaloniki, Greece
Take your classroom into space
Using good scientific practice, students on the ground can compare their results with André’s identical space experiments, by means of both recorded and live-link activities for educational events.
The EPO Convection and Foam Stability inflight call took place at the end of April. Participating venues were Nemo Science Center, Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Speyer Techniek Museum, Speyer (Germany), National Space Centre, Leicester (United Kingdom), Parque de las Ciencias, Granada (Spain).
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Space and science meet online for youngsters
What happens when your experiment gets over 30 000 views online? Tomorrow’s space explorers were awarded an out-of-this-world scientific exchange with astronauts on the International Space Station last Wednesday.
Shake it up!
Never before has scientific curiosity taken European schoolchildren so far into space. ESA astronaut André Kuipers has shown our future generation of scientists what happens when gravity ‘switches off’.
Space oddities to teach science
When liquids and bubbles are in space, odd things start to happen. ESA astronaut André Kuipers is taking schools across Europe on a microgravity waltz to learn what is behind seemingly simple phenomena such as convection and foams.
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Related links
English
German
Student report on EPO foam lesson (German)
Spanish
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Related links
Follow André's mission
André Kuipers is eager to share his many experiences, sunrises and sunsets flying at around 350 kilometres above our heads. Last summer he launched a dedicated blog in Dutch, a good way to track him during the final stages of his training on planet Earth.
Photos from Baikonur
Launch of the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft with ESA's André Kuipers with Don Pettit from NASA and Oleg Kononenko from Russia is scheduled for 21 December 2011. The preparations for the liftoff are going ahead at the Baikonur cosmodrome following the traditions that have been part of every human space mission from Baikonur for decades, with roots going back to Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering 1961 flight.These photos show the crew, busy with the final preparations for their mission.
Contact info for media
Rosita SuensonESA/ESTECCommunication OfficeTel: +31 71 565 3009Email: Rosita.Suenson@esa.int
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