Inspiring the Next Generation: The International Space Station Education Accomplishments

The International Space Station (ISS) has a unique ability to capture the imagination of both students and teachers worldwide. Since 2000, the presence of humans onboard ISS has provided a foundation for numerous educational activities aimed at capturing that interest and motivating study in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Over 43 million students around the world have participated in ISS-related educational activities. Projects such as YouTube Space Lab, Sally Ride Earth Knowledge-based Acquired by Middle Schools (EarthKAM), SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) Zero-Robotics, Tomatosphere, and MAI-75 events among others have allowed for global student, teacher and public access to space through student classroom investigations and real-time audio and video contacts with crewmembers. Educational activities are not limited to STEM but encompass all aspects of the human condition. This is well illustrated in the Uchu Renshi project, a chain poem initiated by an astronaut while in space and continued and completed by people on Earth. With ISS operations now extended to 2024, projects like these and their accompanying educational materials are available to more students around the world. From very early on in the program's history, students have been provided with a unique opportunity to get involved and participate in science and engineering projects. Many of these projects support inquiry-based learning that allows students to ask questions, develop hypothesis-derived experiments, obtain supporting evidence and identify solutions or explanations. This approach to learning is well-published as one of the most effective ways to inspire students to pursue careers in scientific and technology fields. Ever since the first space station element was launched, a wide range of student experiments and educational activities have been performed, both individually and collaboratively, by all the international partner agencies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), European Space Agency, (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and a number of non-participating countries, some under commercial agreements. Many of these programs still continue, and others are being developed and added to the stations tasks on a regular basis. These diverse student experiments and programs fall into one of the following categories: student-developed experiments; students performing classroom versions of ISS experiments; students participating in ISS investigator experiments; education competitions; students participating in ISS Engineering Education; Education Demonstrations and Cultural Activities. This paper summarizes some of the main student experiments and educational activities that have been conducted on the space station

Structural changes in the cell envelope of Yarrowia lipolytica yeast under stress conditions

The ultrastructural changes in the cell envelope of the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica as stress response were examined using electron microscopy technique. The formation of new cellular surface structures including membrane vesicles, pore channels and wall surface globules were shown for the first time under conditions of oxidative (endogenous and exogenous) or thermal stress. This demonstrates once again that under stress conditions the microorganisms reveal properties unknown for them before. Particularly noteworthy is the silicon accumulation, which was revealed at the surface globules with X-ray microanalysis of the elemental composition of cellsâ thin sections. Multi-layered plasmalemma instead of a three-layered one is also characteristic for stressed cells. The envelope modifications above were observed only as stress response and were not detected at the cells of stationary growth phase that assumes different physiological states of the yeast. A decrease in intracellular level of cAMP allows us to suppose a common factor of activating defensive mechanisms and explain the similarity of the response under different stress conditions. The data presented not only enable visualize the yeast stress response and are the supplement to diversity of adaptive reactions, they raise questions about interrelations of the stress phenomena and their functional necessity in the cell.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author