Teaching and Learning Information Item

DATE:	Tuesday, April 17, 2018
TO:	School Board Members
FROM:	Jeff Eakins, Superintendent
SUBJECT / RECOMMENDATIONS
Recognition of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) and the Mission Patch Competition: Mission 12 (Office of Teaching and Learning)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The SSEP allows for students in grades 5-8 an opportunity to compete through a rigorous proposal process to have their science experiment flown to the International Space Station (ISS). Science experiment proposals in Hillsborough County were judged by a committee of local science leaders to be worthy of flying to the station. The top three projects were then submitted to SSEP where a team of scientists evaluated the proposals and selected the top experiment to fly. The Mission Patch competition, for students in grades K-8 were invited to submit mission patches to represent the ISS and the SSEP. The winning patches were selected by district science leaders and then flown in space as part of the payload containing the winning experiment.  The patch is then returned to the students embossed with a certificate stating that the patch flew into space. The experiment and mission patches are scheduled to fly to the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in June 2018.   SSEP Mission 12 Team - Limona Elementary School - 5th Grade Josue Bueno         Benjamin Rieger Tristan Gant          Meghana Thomas Soleil Gates           Pranav Verma Lyric Judge            Lindsay Wills         Mission 12 Patch Winners Janelie Rosario, 1st Grade, Lowry Elementary School Braden Moon, 6th Grade, Randall Middle School
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
• Provide a student-centered learning environment that engages every child
FINANCIAL IMPACT (Budgeted:  No)
This item for recognition and has no financial impact to the district.
EVALUATION
N/A
SUBMITTED BY:

Larry R. Plank, Ed.S.		Deborah Cook
Director, K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (813) 272-4622		Chief Academic Officer (813) 272-4221
		A 03
Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida) * Mtg.#20180417_870 (Board Recognition Meeting) * Section A Item# 03