Girl Scouts of Hawaii

Design It! Build It! Launch It!: The International Space Station Project High-school girls are offered a unique and rewarding opportunity through the Girl Scouts of Hawai`i to design, build and launch their very own computer-controlled space science project. Girls are placed into one of five smaller teams: electrical, mechanical, public relations, software or testing, to learn new skills as they work alongside one another to plan, conceive, develop and test a science experiment, called a MicroLab, which will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS). (To see captions, click on the date the post was published.)

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Ahh, GSH ISS where creativity is encouraged, and fashion is created.

Rachel used the rubber bands from the water bag of last year's experiment, and here is Bond posing for a picture. Definitely a(n) article/magazine cover-worthy!

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OOPS Moment!

Talissa and Jessica were sitting inside the conference room of the Ala Moana Hotel when suddenly a huge commotion erupted in the next room! The two girls walk in on everyone nervously laughing at the sight of the fallen microLab as well as the knocked off water cup over the extension outlets! Oh no!

But it's alright! The team quickly rose to action and dried up the materials. The equipments seems to be working well (cross your fingers!)

The meeting goes back to it's previous stage...

(To be continued).

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Last week, the Programming/Build team, tested the computer controls and the response of the microLab; carefully taking note of the changes needed to be done. At the moment, this is how the microLab looks like. The violet lights are the Grow Lights, the orange caps on the right wall of the microLab holds the Grow Tubes in place. The tube at the right just outside of the microLab is the Test Tube which will hold the experiments (arugula seeds, mediums, fertilizers). The valve with the rubber bands to the left of the test tube, will hold the water.

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Ms. Debra Nakatomi, member of the National Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts of the USA visited the girls during last week's meeting. The team introduced themselves individually along with the mentors. Ms. Nakatomi works as a communication and public relations; one of her projects is documenting the lives of survivors from the tsunami in Fukushima that happened three years ago.

As the day before the final construction of the whole project, the different teams were given tasks. The horticulture team's main task last week was to finalize the 40-day Calendar, which has all of the components needed for the Programming/Build team. The Programming/Build Team's task is to modify the Horticulture team's inputs to the microLab.

Today, everything is being finalized, confirmed, and made sure it is ready to go to Valley Christian School. Then, finally, the project flies to space!

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This is our last week's experiment results. The experiment was based on the amount of fertilizer each group has. 

The top picture is experiment A and B and it has 0.025 g of organic fertilizer. (1 out of 2 grew)

The middle picture is experiment C and D and it has 0.0125 g of organic fertilizer. (1 out of 2 grew)

The bottom picture is experiment E, F, G, and H and it has 1 pellet of synthetic fertilizer. (3 out of 4 grew)

Today, the girls found out the launch date is actually closer than what was thought. Instead of April 6th, the launching will be on May 1st at Virginia

The girls have only 2 weekend meetings left to finalize everything and send it to Valley Christian School. The horticulture team is given the first hour or two of the meeting to finish up the 40-day calendar that will record the Water Volume Requirements, Watering Frequency, Time of Watering, and Grow Lights On-Duration). This is especially important today because the programming team needs these information to accommodate it into the program of the MicroLab. 

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Ask the Girls!

Aloha, do you have any questions regarding our project? If you do, don't hesitate to ask! We are thinking of doing an Ask the Girls! video where the girls will do a Q and A based on the project or anything you are interested in!

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Our new mini portable scaling system came in today! 

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Update on our T-connectors! The engineering decided the cross/intersection t-connector is not working as well, so they chose the cactus t-connector. The difference between the two t-connectors can be seen in this image. 

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This box is our lab experiment containers for Horticulture team. The top picture is the one without the lights, the middle and bottom is what it looks like with the lights turned on. The camera was unable to get a shot of how the real light shading, it made the grow-lights appear darker than it actually is. In actuality, the grow-lights produce a fuschia-like color. This week's experiment is already nestled in the box, ready to be taken care of. The horticulture group's experiment this week is a repetition of last week's, which is finding the final amount of fertilizer to use. It is now a matter of getting the best amount for the synthetic and organic fertilizers we will be sending to space. 

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Just giving you a sneak peak on where the horticulture team has been experimenting weekly! A box constructed with grow lights (not seen), attached by twisty strings. The grow lights are red and blue, which produces a purple shade.

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Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

Marie Curie

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Watch our progress!

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @GSHISSproject

Blogspot: gshiss.tumblr.com

Instagram: gshiss

Side notes: If you are curious about our project you may ask us questions on our "Curious?" link which is on our home page! (You do not have to have a tumblr account to ask us questions here, you may click on the link and send an anonymous ask to us.) So excited to hear from you!

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Another December update, the group glued the orange caps on the microLab. These caps will serve as templates and holders for the grow-tubes. Here is a top-view immage of the microLab. Unfortunately, the circuit boards are not attached to the microLab yet. It will be posted in a later update though, so tune in for that!

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The team's circuit boards arrived!

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This picture was taken on December when Jenna, Jessica, and Fely (top photo) are trying to find a way to insert the water-tube to the grow-tube and figuring out which area best to place the hole. On this day, the group decided to insert the water-tubing right in the middle of the rock wool (our medium) as shown on the bottom picture of Raffie holding the grow-tube up.

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NASA Gov Doc: Southern Lights

This is an animation of the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights), eight days after a record-setting solar flare sent a shower of charged particles towards Earth. From Earth, this glowing ring would appear as a curtain of light shimmering across the night sky.