NASA selects local teacher and students’ experiment for mission

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. -A St. Joseph Mission School teacher and her students put together an experiment that has been selected for a NASA flight mission. St. Joseph Mission School is a private, Catholic school located in San Fidel, New Mexico. The school recently congratulated the teacher and her students on social media for “put[ting] St. Joseph’s in space.”

Teacher Brendajulissa Diaz guided the students through the process of creating the experiment and submitting it to the NASA-affiliated program. Diaz is from Puerto Rico and has lived in the Cibola County area for about seven years. Upon moving to the area, Diaz was looking for a job and decided to give teaching a try. She worked at Mesa View Elementary School, Grants, for a few years. Diaz discovered that she had a passion for teaching, particularly in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) area. Diaz later applied to St. Joseph’s and has been the STEM teacher there for about a year.

The STEM instructor has a few connections within the NASA industry who keep her updated about various competitions and programs associated with NASA. That is how Diaz learned about “Cubes in Space.”

“Cubes in Space™, a program by idoodledu inc., is the only global competition, offered at no cost, for students 11-18 years of age to design and propose experiments to launch into space or a near space environment on a NASA sounding rocket and zero-pressure scientific balloon,” according to www.cubesinspace.com.

The specific experiment that Diaz’ students worked on involved researching how bread mold produces Penicillin and how the various factors, such as cosmic radiation from the Sun, could affect the mold growth, appearance, et cetera. The findings can be used to help future studies and be utilized in future missions and possibly help with establishing pharmaceutical labs in space.

The students who worked on this experiment include Mea Lucio (5th grade), Adonelia Sanchez (5th grade), Brianna Aragon (6th grade), Lorenza Toribio (6th grade), Amaya Lucio (6th grade), and Carmella Chosa (8th grade). The students’ proposal received great feedback, and they were commended for it being “well-written with great attention to detail…”

Soon after receiving feedback on the experiment proposal, Diaz received a letter from the program including information regarding the missions in which their experiment could be incorporated.

“We are most excited to fly your students’ experiments on the 2021 Cubes in Space SR-7 or the RB-6 mission,” said the letter. “The SR-7 mission is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center-Wallops Flight Facility on Thursday, 24 June 2021. And we just received word today that RB-6… will be on NASA’s Balloon Program Office Test Flight launching from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico this summer. The flight window for NASA’s Test Flight opens on 15 August 2021.”

Diaz said that the students were extremely excited to receive the news. This group has a special interest in science and were very dedicated in their efforts to put together an exceptional experiment – even working on weekends and calling her late at night with questions, recalled Diaz,

The STEM teacher had made it a point to perform numerous experiments, especially highlighting the scientific method, with the students so that they were familiar with the process. The students also participated and won awards in local science fair competitions. Diaz said it was this consistent practice and exposure to the scientific method process, along with their personal interests in science, that made the students successful.

Diaz said she hopes this opportunity encourages other students to follow their dreams, and further.

She added, “Whatever they want to do, if they have the discipline, if they ask for help, somebody [is] going to be there and they’re going to be successful. So, nothing is impossible.”