NASA's Zero-G carry Princeton University teachers: PPPL lets teachers hitch a ride

As part of a Princeton-sponsored team, Miller and Williams were flying at that moment on a NASA aircraft modified to simulate a reduced-gravity environment.

They were there to study how microgravity affected the movement of the pendulum, crafted from a softball, and the dynamics of the bubbles, all of which were contained in a clear plastic box.



PPPL team members Susan Franko of Gregory Elementary School in Trenton (left) and Patty Hillyer (center, in red T-shirt) of Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School in Cliffwood observe their experimental box on the zero-gravity flight.

The teachers had journeyed to NASA Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field in Houston to conduct experiments along with some 80 participants in NASA's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program July 22-29.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) sponsored six of the dozen teams, including one dubbed the "Space Cowboys" with Miller, Williams and four others. In total, PPPL sponsored about 40 participants, including teachers from various New Jersey school districts and researchers from the lab.

"Many of the teachers, for the first time, designed, built and performed an actual scientific experiment," said PPPL Science Education Program Head Andrew Zwicker, who rode the Zero-G aircraft twice with this year's K-12 educators. "They plan to use the experience, and the curricula they designed based upon their experiments, in their classrooms."

Princeton University - PPPL lets teachers hitch a ride on NASA's Zero-G