DCCCD Students’ Experiment, Dreams Crystallize In Space

DALLAS- Like ideas, crystals form, take shape and grow. They become snowflakes, diamonds or salt. They also could assume new characteristics when chemicals in those crystals might become altered in the zero gravity of space.

Countless elementary school children have grown sugar crystal on a string in science class – rock candy. But only a select group of students from Eastfield and El Centro colleges in the Dallas County Community College District’s system have tried to crystallize sodium acetate under zero-gravity and near-zero-gravity conditions.

Six of those eight students – the 2014 DCCCD NASA team – spent a week on the ground and flew parabolas in the sky (on NASA’s famous “Weightless Wonder” jumbo jet) to test their experiment. They wanted to learn how a sodium acetate crystal might look when grown in zero gravity in super-saturated sodium, compared to the effects of regular gravity on earth.

DCCCD’s team was one of only three community colleges in the country chosen to participate in a 2014 Reduced Gravity Education Flight as part of NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Program. A total of 13 colleges and universities from across the country were selected to test their experiments in flight. NASA’s space- and researched-based programs and testing include educational outreach that is designed to promote careers in STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. NASA is particularly interested in minority students who are enrolled in colleges and universities because they typically are underrepresented in STEM fields.

During the team’s stay in Houston, the DCCCD students prepared their experiment and adapted the method they were using to conduct their research in double containment. They placed their experiment inside a box created by NASA, which created a double containment that preserved the experiment in the extreme environment of the parabolic jet flight. The box created its own challenge for the team because they had to be able to work with the seed crystal in their sealed solution without opening the jar (they ended up using a magnet). Members also spent a day with NASA scientists, who visited with them and reviewed every team’s experiment – making suggestions and sharing observations along the way. And then the DCCCD team flew on the jumbo jet – a small group of students among a handful of people in the world who have experienced the thrill of zero gravity. Now they are assessing and analyzing their results.