A Report on The Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment-Teachers and Students Investigating Plants in Space (CUE-TSIPS).

Abstract

The Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment (CUE) flew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on Mission STS-87. The educational component, entitled " Teachers and Students Investigating Plants in Space " (TSIPS), involved students and teachers in the U.S. and Ukraine performing ground controls for the " Brassica rapa-Seed Terminal growth In Chamber " (B-STIC) experiment. Teachers in both countries were trained in the experimental protocols for culturing and pollinat-ing Brassica rapa plants in simulated flight hardware. Teachers and students in the two countries have been exchanging letters which has resulted in a rich exchange of culture and science. For the mission, an Ukrainian Payload Specialist (PS) performed pollination in space while an alternate Ukrainian PS and hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S. and Ukraine performed the same tasks on Earth. Two communication downlink sessions were held so that students asked the PS about the experiments taking place on orbit. Participating students submitted the results of their ground control studies which are being compared to the plants pollinated on orbit.

Full text

United States of America Ukraine
The Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment
A Report on The Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment-Teach-
ers and Students Investigating Plants in Space.
*Thomas W. Dreschel, **Paul H. Williams, ***Volodimir I. Nazarenko, and *Peter V.
Chetirkin. *Dynamac Corporation, Kennedy Space Center, **University of Wiscon-
sin, Madison, and ***Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, Kiev, Ukraine.

A Report on The Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment-Teach-
ers and Students Investigating Plants in Space.
Abstract
The Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment (CUE) flew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia
on Mission STS-87. The educational component, entitled “Teachers and Students Investigating
Plants in Space” (TSIPS), involved students and teachers in the U.S. and Ukraine performing
ground controls for the “
Brassica rapa
-Seed Terminal growth In Chamber” (B-STIC) experiment.
Teachers in both countries were trained in the experimental protocols for culturing and pollinat-
ing
Brassica rapa
plants in simulated flight hardware. Teachers and students in the two coun-
tries have been exchanging letters which has resulted in a rich exchange of culture and science.
For the mission, an Ukrainian Payload Specialist (PS) performed pollination in space
while an alternate Ukrainian PS and hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S. and Ukraine
performed the same tasks on Earth. Two communication downlink sessions were held so that
students asked the PS about the experiments taking place on orbit. Participating students
submitted the results of their ground control studies which are being compared to the plants
pollinated on orbit.
The enthusiasm observed from the teachers and students from both countries indicate
there is great hope that the collaborations established during this mission will continue in other
collaborative areas into the future.
CUE Mission Background
President Clinton of the United States met with President Kuchma of Ukraine to develop
collaborative efforts between the two countries. In the Joint Statement on Future Aerospace
Cooperation Between the United States and Ukraine, National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-
tration (NASA) and the National Space Agency-Ukraine (NSAU) agreed to collaborate on ex-
periments and payloads which could qualify for flight on the Space Shuttle and provide an
opportunity for a Ukrainian Payload Specialist to fly on the Space Shuttle.
The joint U.S. and Ukrainian Payload consisted of experiments to study the effects of
microgravity on plant reproduction and photosynthesis, plant physiology and pathology, and
moss gravitropism (Dreschel, 1997).
Preparation for the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment science experiments began in
November of 1995 with a meeting of scientists, engineers, and management at Kennedy Space
Center. During this meeting, collaborations were established between Ukraine and U.S. scien-
tists and the initial definitions of the experiments as well as the education component were
established. During the following months, Ukrainian scientists visited the U.S. scientists’ labora-
tories and the U.S. scientists visited the Ukrainian scientists’ laboratories.

CUE Education Program Background
In January of 1996, a meeting of the two education component Principal Investigators,
Professor Paul H. Williams of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Dr. Volodimir I.
Nazarenko was held at Kennedy Space Center. This meeting included a workshop with local
school teachers and meetings with NASA life sciences and education programs representatives.
This meeting served to establish the education component collaboration and initiated the design
of the education program which would come to be known as the Collaborative Ukrainian Experi-
ment-Teachers and Students Investigating Plants in Space or CUE-TSIPS (Dreschel, 1997).
CUE-TSIPS Teachers Guide
The development of the material for the CUE-TSIPS came as an extension of Wisconsin
Fast Plants activities and NASA education office materials. The CUE-TSIPS Teacher’s Guide
was developed during 1996 and included detailed instructions on building simulated flight
hardware and conducting the B-STIC experiment under classroom conditions. In addition,
discussions of the space (microgravity) environment and plant research in space were included
as well as additional activities to demonstrate plant response to the environment.
The guide, titled “Teachers and Students Investigating Plants in Space: A Teacher’s
Guide with Activities for Life Sciences” (Williams, 1997) contains a detailed description of the
construction of classroom CUE hardware from readily available, inexpensive materials, as well
as procedures for planting, culturing, pollinating, and measuring development in the
Brassica
rapa
. In addition, the activities which are centered on plant responses to gravity and light are
described and utilize 35 mm film cans and soda bottle caps.
The guide (developed by the WFP program and published by the NASA Office of Human
Resources and Education, in cooperation with the NASA Space Life Sciences Division) was
translated into Ukrainian and distributed there. The Ukrainian education component also devel-
oped an abbreviated version for students, also in Ukrainian. The U.S. version of the teachers
guide is available at NASA education centers and on the Spacelink Life Sciences Web Site at
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/Curriculum.Materials/Sciences
/Life.Sciences/.
Additional information is available on the KSC Biomedical Office CUE Web Site: http://
atlas.ksc.nasa.gov/education/general/cue.htm.
CUE-TSIPS Teacher Training
The first CUE-TSIPS master teacher training workshop was held in Kiev, Ukraine in
October of 1996. Professor Williams and two Kennedy Space Center life sciences programs
representatives, Peter Chetirkin (Russian interpreter) and Dr. Thomas Dreschel (education
programs coordinator), conducted a three-day workshop with nineteen Ukraine teachers and Dr.
Nazarenko. The workshop was received with great enthusiasm and established the CUE-
TSIPS program in Ukraine. Subsequent to this initial workshop, the Ukraine teachers held a
number of teacher workshops resulting in the training of over 500 teachers in the 25 regions of
Ukraine.

Students from U.S. and Ukraine schools have been exchanging letters as a result of
participation in CUE. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and NASA Headquarters have assisted in
this exchange by providing an inexpensive way for mail from Kiev to reach the students in the
U.S. via pouch-mail. This mail is carried from Kiev to Washington D. C., sent to Kennedy Space
Center, and placed into the U.S. Postal System. In addition, The Coca Colatm Foundation-
Ukraine has provided a grant to the Ukraine Junior Academy of Science. This grant will support
the establishment of student email sites in each of the regions of Ukraine and has facilitated the
sending of select Ukraine students and teachers to Kennedy Space Center for the STS-87
launch.
In the U.S., the initial master teacher workshop was conducted at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison by Professor Williams and the Wisconsin Fast Plants Office staff in March of
1997. Twenty U.S. master teachers were trained during the workshop and went on to conduct
additional workshops to train thousands of other teachers.
The master teachers were all experienced Fast Plants middle school and secondary
teachers who were selected from a pool of applicants. They were already into the experimental
“process science” mode with their students and had committed to having their students carry out
a subsequent “research” project, based on questions that arose from the real time experiment.
The Fast Plants Program designated these teachers so that there was a good geographical
distribution and good socio-economic/cultural diversity. In addition, there was at least one
teacher in proximity to NASA centers: Kennedy Space Center (Florida); Johnson Spaceflight
Center (Texas), and Ames Research Center (California). Teachers in the U.S. and Ukraine have
been paired for continued interactions. The schools that have been designated with their
‘partner’ school are presented in Table 1.
The National Science Teachers Association and National Association for Biology
Teachers Annual Meetings
Demonstrations were conducted, workshops held, and approximately 5,000 CUE-TSIPS
Teacher’s Guides were distributed during the National Science Teachers Association and the
National Association of Biology Teachers annual meetings. A workshop was conducted at
NASA’s Classroom of the Future and Internet chats were set up between students and CUE-
TSIPS experts. During the fall semester of 1997, it is estimated that tens of thousands of stu-
dents in Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S. participated in the CUE-
TSIPS experiment.
The STS-87 Mission
On November 19, 1997, STS-87 was launched into orbit from Kennedy Space Center
with an international crew and the hearts and minds of teachers and students in the U.S. and
Ukraine. The crew for STS-87 consisted of: Commander Kevin Kregel; Pilot Steven Lindsey;
Mission Specialist (MS) Kalpana Chawla, Ph.D.; and Mission Specialist Takao Doi, Ph.D. The
Ukrainian Payload Specialist (PS) for CUE was Colonel Leonid Kadenyuk with Dr. Yaroslav
Pustovyi acting as the PS mission back-up.

Table 1. CUE-TSIPS School Partners in the United States and Ukraine
U.S. Schools Ukraine Schools
1. Stellar Secondary a. The City Children’s
Alternative School Ecological Center, Ivano- Frankivsk
Anchorage, Alaska b. Regional State Ecologic- Naturalistic
Center, Ivano-Frankivsk
c. The District Ecologic-Naturalistic Center,
Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Nadvirna
2. LA Center for Enriched Studies a. School N 155, Kiev
Los Angeles, California b. Khmelnitsky Regional Ecologic-
Naturalistic Centre, Khmelnitsky
3. Roosevelt High School a. The Chernigivsky Regional
Los Angeles, California Ecologic-Naturalistic Centre, Chernigiv
b. The Laboratory of Ecology and Aero
space Monitoring, Simferopol, Crimea
4. Leland High School a. Regional Ecologic-Naturalistic
San Jose, California Centre, Dnipropetrovsk
b. Dnipropetrovsk Ecologic-Industrial
Association of Children and Students,
Dnipropetrovsk
5. Del Mar High School a. Volynsky Regional Ecologic-
San Jose, California Naturalistic Centre, Volynsky Region
6. Wilton High School (two teachers) a. Crimean Scientific Research
Wilton, Connecticut Centre of Students, Simferopol, Crimea
b. Khersonsky State Pedagogical Institute,
Kherson
c. Chernivitsky Regional Ecologic-
Naturalistic Centre, Chernivtsy
d. Kirovogradsky Regional State Ecologic-
Naturalistic Centre, Kirovograd

Table 1. (Continued)
U.S. Schools Ukraine Schools
7. Cocoa High School a. Solonyanska Secondary
Cocoa, Florida School, Dnipropetrovsky Region, Solone
b. Ecological Center, Dnipropetrovsky
Region, Nikopol
8. Lake Brantley High School a. Myrgorodska Centre of
Altamonte Springs, Florida Juniors, Poltavsky Region
b. Pyryatinska Regional Centre of Juniors,
Poltavsky Region
9. Parkview High School a. Lugansky Regional Ecologic-
Lilburn, Georgia Naturalistic Centre, Lugansk
b. School N 57, Lugansky Medical
University, Lugansk
10. Grissom School a. Ukraine State Ecologic-
Tinley Park, Illinois Naturalistic Centre, Kiev
b. Regional Ecologic- Naturalistic Centre,
Zhytomyr
c. Volovetska Secondary School,
Zakarpatsky Region, Volovetsk
11. Olathe East High School a. Cherkasska Regional Centre
Olathe, Kansas of Juniors, Cherkassy
12. Central City High School a. Institute of Plant
Central City, Nebraska Physiology and Genetics, Kiev
b. Palace of Children and Juniors, The
Centre of Junior Naturalists, Gorodenko,
Ivano-Grankivsky Region
c. Rivenska Center of the Juniors, Rivensky
Region, Riven
13. The Lawrenceville School a. Fomin Botanical Garden, Kiev
Lawrenceville, New Jersey b. National University, Physico-Mathematical
College, Kiev

Table 1. (Continued)
U.S. Schools Ukraine Schools
14. Logan High School a. Kiyiv Palace of Children
East Bellefontaine, Ohio and Juniors, Kiev
b. Kiev Regional Ecologic-Naturalistic
Centre, Kiev
c. Mykolayivsky Regional Ecologic-
Naturalistic Centre, Mykolayiv
15. Gervais High School a. Ukrainian State Ecologic-
Gervais, Oregon Naturalistic Centre, Kiev
b. Vinnitskaya Regional Centre of Junior
Naturalists, Vinnitsia
16. Dent Middle School a. Secondary School N 71, Kiev
Columbia, South Carolina b. Balakleysska Regional Centre of the
Juniors, Kharkivsky Region, Balakleya
17. Moises Molina High School a. Ukrainian State Ecologic-
Dallas, Texas Naturalistic Centre, Kiev
b. Kiev Regional Ecologic-Naturalistic
Centre, Kiyivsky Region, Boyarka
18. Augusta High School a. Kiev Regional Ecologic-
Augusta, Wisconsin Naturalistic Centre, Kiyivsky Region,
Boyarka
b. Kovisky Ecologic Centre
Ivano-Frankivsky Region, Kosiv
c. Odessky Regional Ecologic-Naturalistic
Centre, Odessa
19. Westby High School a. L’vivsky Regional State
Westby, Wisconsin Ecologic-Naturalistic Centre, L’viv
b. Ternopilsky Regional Ecologic-Naturalistic
Centre, Ternopil

CUE-TSIP Student and Teacher Presence at Launch
Prior to lift-off, Ukraine students and teachers visiting Kennedy Space Center had the
opportunity to meet and talk with Ukraine President Kuchma. Shortly after these students and
teachers along with some of their counterparts from the U.S. watched as Space Shuttle Colum-
bia rose into orbit carrying the Ukrainian Payload Specialist, Colonel Kadenyuk and the Collabo-
rative Ukrainian Experiment payload.
Student Downlink Sessions with Colonel Kadenyuk
On December 1, 1997, Colonel Kadenyuk talked with and answered questions from
students in the Ukraine and the United States participating in the CUE-TSIPS project. Two
separate downlink sessions were held from Space Shuttle Columbia while on orbit, one in
Ukrainian and one in English. The Payload Specialist discussed such topics as the different
experiments that he was performing, his impressions of living and training in the United States
and how it feels to be in space. Students in Ukraine questioned Colonel Kadenyuk from a
television station in Kiev, and students in the U. S. asked their questions from either Kennedy
Space Center in Florida or Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Each session lasted
approximately one-half hour and about thirty questions were discussed during each session.
Experiment completion and data collection
Upon finishing their data collection, students submitted their results to become part of a
large data-base. The data-base includes the results of student investigations in the United
States and Ukraine, the scientists’ ground control and spaceflight data. Follow-up studies will
be up to the individual students to develop.
In summary, the CUE has answered questions about plant responses to the space
environment and the CUE-TSIPS has involved hundreds of thousands of teachers and students
in space life sciences research. The scientific and cultural exchange between scientists, teach-
ers, and students in the U. S. and Ukraine has lead to a greater understanding both of the
effects of the space environment on plants and of the two countries involved. The CUE has
been received with a high degree of enthusiasm by both countries. Because of the dedication
and hard work by many individuals in both countries, it has been a highly successful mission
both for science and for cultural exchange, with high hopes of further collaboration in the near
future.
Literature Cited
Dreschel, T. W., P. H. Williams, V. I. Nazarenko, and P. V. Chetirkin. 1997. The Collaborative
Ukrainian Experiment (CUE): Opportunities for collaboration in Science Education and
Research. Proceedings of The 34th Annual Space Congress, Cocoa Beach, Florida,
Session 2D, Paper #6.
Williams, P. H. 1997. Teachers and Students Investigating Plants in Space: A Teacher’s Guide
with Activities for Life Sciences. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U. S.
Government Printing Office: 1997-417-772/76126, 106 pp.