Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Monday, May 16, 2011

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A group of Winburn Middle School sixth-graders competed in NASA's Spaced Out Sports, which culminated with a live virtual conference with astronaut Clay Anderson.

This Friday the 13^th was a lucky day for some sixth-graders at Winburn Middle School – in a live webcast, they quizzed an astronaut about weightlessness, baseball and Newton’s laws of motion.

With this academic enhancement class, Winburn finished among the top seven schools in this year’s “Spaced Out Sports Design Challenge” and won a drawing to be one of three participating in the interactive program with NASA’s Clay Anderson.

“We were talking about Newton’s laws in science, so it was an extension of what we were already doing,” said teacher Veronica Melton, who noted how the contest stretched her kids beyond the scope of Kentucky’s math and science core content.

“The students had to develop a game that could be played in the density lab aboard the International Space Station (ISS). They had to be able to explain the physics behind the game, and it had to be able to be played in zero gravity,” she explained.

As they worked on proposals, the youngsters researched the space station to determine how many people typically are on board and what kind of exercise they can do in space. The contest also limited their game supplies to ordinary items like bungee cords, vinyl gloves and socks.

The students, whom Melton divided into several small groups, came up with a playbook outlining their games, made diagrams demonstrating how the laws of motion would affect play, and produced a video showing why their game would work in microgravity.

“You couldn’t practice the game. You had to infer and use your imagination,” said 12-year-old Brooks Spears, whose team used Velcro in its bungee ball game. He described it as sort of like basketball, but with targets on the wall instead of hoops.

Classmate Maggie Callaway said her group went for the M&M’s, one of the astronauts’ favorite snacks in space. In their game, each player taped a cup to his wrist and tried to catch the floating M&M’s. Her team assigned point values to the plain and peanut candies and set a time limit.

“We had to use our background knowledge of physics to figure out how the game would work,” Maggie said.

Spaced Out Sports challenges students to apply Newton’s laws of motion by designing or redesigning a game for astronauts to play in space. Three winners are chosen by the NASA Stennis Space Center’s Education Office in Mississippi, and their games are modified for the ISS astronauts to try out. Also, three are invited to participate in a webcast with NASA.

During the May 13 uplink, Winburn students asked a handful of prepared questions – mostly about how weightlessness affects physical activity.

Anderson, speaking from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, noted how some games like chess are more manageable than others. One hindrance is the size of an ISS module, which generally is comparable to the interior of a school bus.

The Winburn kids were attentive throughout the hour-long webcast and grateful for the opportunity to interact with an astronaut.

“I don’t know anyone else who has ever done this, so it’s something I can brag about when I get home,” Brooks said with a smile.