Space Research Starts in Primary School – Can Organisms Survive a Short Voyage to Near-Space?

Elementary school children in Rehovot constructed and shuttled to near-space a miniature lab designed to test survival skills of organisms representing different taxa from the kingdom of life. The trajectory of the projectile, a meteorological balloon, carrying newborn corals, Drosophila fly pupa and tardigrades, was monitored with cameras, satellite GPS and a portable lab-on-disk recording in real-time vital parameters through ascent and descent of the organisms. The miniature lab with the subjects of the experiment was retrieved and analyzed to determine the survival and postdevelopment of the various life forms exposed to the harsh conditions of the excursion to the ozone layer and back. The whole project was recorded on tape and pupils concluded it with valuable insights into repercussions of travel to the edge of space, some of which are summarized in this paper. As a pedagogical approach, the creative and dynamic involvement of the young students in this initiative, an intricate scientifc-technological project, marked a successful demonstration of project-based learning as a desirable approach for effective experience-driven contemporary teaching.