HPSD to Participate in the SSEP

HPSD to Participate in the SSEP



Standard Press Release

Hoboken Public School District

Christopher Munoz

201-356-3738/201-978-2164

[email protected]


RELEASE DATE: September 3, 2021

Hoboken Public School District to Participate in

the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program

Let’s Shoot for the Stars

Hoboken, NJ, Friday, September 3, 2021— Students at Hoboken High School and Hoboken Middle School will be shooting for the stars as they develop proposals for microgravity experiments to be conducted by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). One student team designed experiment will be among 24 selected from the United States, Canada and Ukraine to fly on Mission 16 to the ISS in spring/summer of 2022 as part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). SSEP is undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks, LLC.

This year’s seventh graders will participate in the SSEP Program, along with team leaders from Hoboken High School’s National Honor Society. This interactive program will engage students in a variety of microgravity learning experiences; designing research proposals for microgravity experiments in diverse fields such as seed germination, crystal growth, physiology and life cycles of microorganisms, cell biology and growth, food studies, and studies of micro-aquatic life; and submitting these proposals for review by experts in the field.

Once teams submit their formal research proposals, a review team of master STEM educators and local researchers will convene in November 2021 to select the top three proposals. These proposals will be submitted to the National Step 2 Review Board, which will select the final experiment for a spring/summer 2022 spaceflight. Each experiment must be designed to work within the constraints of a Fluids Mixing Enclosure (FME) research mini-laboratory and pass a NASA Flight Safety Review.

Hoboken High School Principal Robin Piccapietra shared, “Providing our students with time to teach, coach and mentor younger students is one of our core values. The bridge that we are building between Hoboken High School and Hoboken Middle School is getting stronger each day.”

Participation in this esteemed program is an example of Hoboken Public School District’s commitment to rigor, relevance and relationships. Supporting and trusting students to do authentic work that matters and has an impact beyond the classroom. Students will visit science and aerospace museums, observatories, and planetariums as well as partner with adult professionals in various scientific and aeronautic fields. In addition, students will gain critical written communications skills as they engage in an authentic two-step science proposal review process.

Superintendent of Schools Christine Johnson said, “SSEP offers a unique opportunity for Hoboken Public School District’s students”. Participation in SSEP offers our students an experience that they will remember the rest of

their lives. Far more than learning science, they will have the opportunity to be scientists, conducting an

experiment structured identically to the work of the world’s leading researchers.”

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program will launch in just two weeks. Hoboken High School students, staff and administrators have participated in a detailed training module and will shape parameters, rules and expectations in partnership with SSEP.

About SSEP

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) was developed by astrophysicist, Dr. Jeff Goldstein, who founded the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE). The program originated in 2010 to address national strategic needs in Workforce Development for the 21st Century designed to inspire the next generation of U.S. scientists & engineers. SSEP has had 13 flight opportunities involving 142 communities in the U.S. and Canada through the first thirteen flight opportunities, 74,680 grade 5-16 students were fully immersed in microgravity experiment design and proposal writing. This is the first time a cohort of students from Hoboken will participate. 

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program [or SSEP] is a program of the National Center for Earth

and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space

Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and

NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASAunder a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization

of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.

For more information, please visit: http://ssep.ncesse.org/