Sparking Student Interest in Space Science in Brazil
Hello reader!
A note published on the day (04/01), in the "Blog of
the National Laboratory of the ISS", addressing the awakening of student interest in Space Sciences in Brazil.
Duda Falcão
Sparking Student Interest in
Space Science in Brazil
By Jessica Scarfuto,
Contributing Author
April 1, 2019
MEDIA CREDIT: Image courtesy of Garatéa Mission
For a country without much involvement in space research,
educational outreach is critical for getting more students interested in
careers in the space industry. This has become a mission for Lucas Fonseca, a
Brazilian space engineer who heads Brazil’s participation in the Student
Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP).
SSEP is a Space Station Explorers partner
program developed by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education
in which students design experiments that could be conducted on the
International Space Station (ISS). Participating students take part in a
research competition in which one experiment is chosen to fly to the ISS.
Space Station Explorers
Space
Station Explorers is a growing community of ISS National Lab partner
organizations working to leverage the unique platform of the ISS to provide
valuable educational experiences. Space Station Explorers partners run programs
that are supported by the ISS National Lab, and those partners can promote STEM
literacy both within the U.S. and internationally.
Fonseca became interested in educational outreach after
being the only Brazilian to work with the European Space Agency on the Rosetta
mission to rendezvous a spacecraft with a comet. “I asked myself why we didn’t
have more Brazilians working on other great projects,” he said. Realizing
Brazil needed to expand more into the space industry in the future, Fonseca
began to get involved in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
education.
Engaging Students in STEM
Fonseca’s first education project was a high-altitude
balloon competition in 2016. Students came up with experiments and competed for
the opportunity to fly their experiment to the stratosphere on a high-altitude
balloon. The first year, 300 students participated in the competition, and
3,000 students participated the second year. Following the success of the
competition, Fonseca looked for additional opportunities to expand student
engagement and found SSEP.
MEDIA CREDIT: Image courtesy of Garatéa Mission
The first year participating in SSEP, Fonseca started
with a small group: 327 students from three schools in Sao Paulo, with a mix of
both public and private schools. Including students from public schools was
important to Fonseca because in Brazil public school students are typically
from impoverished communities and do not have many opportunities for STEM
engagement. Fonseca funded the SSEP project himself with money from his space
company, Airvantis, so the students would have the opportunity to compete. “The
government is cutting a lot of investment in science, so we are trying to keep
the science alive in these students with these kinds of amazing opportunities,” he said.
Each week during the nine-week program, students from the
public schools came to the private school to attend class together. They split
into teams of four to six students and learned about designing an experiment.
When it came time for the research competition, proposals were submitted from
72 student teams, and a poster presentation was held at the private school.
From these proposals, ultimately one project was selected for flight to the
ISS.
Making an Impact
MEDIA CREDIT: Image courtesy of Estelita Hassa
Carazzai/Folhapress
The winning SSEP group from Brazil giving a presentation in Washington D.C. (students from Dante Alighieri, Emef Perimetral, Project Âncora) in Brazil's first year of SSEP participation. |
The results have been life-changing for those who participated
in the first year of SSEP in Sao Paulo. Fonseca said he saw better grades in
science almost immediately, as well as a greater understanding of how the
scientific process works. “Normally when you are in university or you have a
job, you are competing to have your idea chosen, so we are trying to replicate
that, and with SSEP, it works very well,” he said.
For one particular student, SSEP opened doors to
opportunities that he would never have had otherwise. “We had a student from a
very poor school in Brazil who was part of the winning group,” said Fonseca.
After participating in SSEP, the student received a lot of news coverage and
support from the community.
As a result, the student received a grant to transfer to
private school for his remaining three years of high school, and the community
paid for him to take English lessons so he could present at the SSEP conference
in Washington, D.C. “This is something we are trying to replicate more and
more,” Fonseca said of the student’s experience.
Looking Forward
MEDIA CREDIT: Image courtesy of Garatéa Mission
This year, Fonseca opened participation in SSEP to all of
Brazil, and more than 4,100 students from 175 schools throughout the country
participated. Although only one experiment is chosen for flight to the ISS, all
students benefit greatly from the program, Fonseca said.
“Of course the students want to fly their experiments,
but at the end of the day, they are happy to be part of it,” he said. “This
nine-week process where they use the scientific method to plan their
experiment, this is more important than to have their experiment flown to the
ISS.”
Learn More
Read more about SSEP in the Upward feature
article, “The
Ultimate Science Fair: Participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiments
Program.” For more information about Space Station Explorers,
visit www.spacestationexplorers.org.
Source: The ISS National Lab Blog - https://www.issnationallab.org/blog
Comentário: Pois é
leitor, veja ai o reconhecimento internacional de uma única pessoa competente
lutando contra todas as adversidades possíveis como o Eng. Lucas Fonseca
(USPSc/Airvantis), vem realizando em prol da educação nas ciências espaciais em
escolas de ensino fundamental e médio de todo país, e até então sem o menor
apoio de quem deveria e poderia ajudar como o Governo de seu país, fora leitor o
seu envolvimento também com o ensino superior, este ligado a USP de São Carlos,
onde atua como professor. Entretanto
vale também lembrar que temos outros profissionais que contribuíram e vem
contribuindo nessa área educacional que devem ser lembrados, como os Profs. Alysson
Diógenes (UP), Antônio Carlos Foltran (UP), Cândido Osvaldo de Moura (EMPTAN de
Ubatuba-SP), Carlos Henrique Marchi (UFPR), João Batista Garcia Canalle
(UERJ/OBA), José Felix Santana (UFRPE/CEFEC), José Miraglia (FIAP), Oswaldo
Loureda (UNILA/Acrux), Paulo Roberto Lagos (Equipe Longe Lateqve/CEP) entre
outros, bem como associações como a BAR e a COBRUF, todos colaborando como
podem em prol da educação de nossos jovens. A esperança agora é que com uma
nova Agencia Espacial, esperemos estruturada e fortalecida (galera de Brasília, não tenho duvida da boa intenção de vocês, mas entendam que não existe Programa Espacial desenvolvido sem uma Agencia Espacial estruturada
e forte politicamente, vejam os casos da NASA, ESA, ROSCOSMOS, NASDA, ISRO,
CSA, CNSA, DLR, CNES e na América do Sul a CONAE argentina, fora o exemplo que
Portugal vem dando com a sua Portugal Space) para que possamos conduzir com gestão
competente as nossas atividades espaciais em conjunto com os Institutos de Pesquisas
do governo, Academia e a Industria. Lembre-se, não podemos mais errar, chega de
tentar inventar a roda, precisamos fazer o feijão com arroz e seguir os
exemplos exitosos, e cá pra nós amigos eles são muitos, mas todos realizados
com seriedade, competência, visão, dinamismo e comprometimento. Ouçam o apelo
da Comunidade Espacial, pois são eles que conhecem o caminho a ser seguido.
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