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Ashley Ivans
Mescalero Apache School

Experiment Overview
Five organic substances (geode crystals, turquoise, pollen, sugar, & salt) flown in space will be compared to control substances to determine any changes in structure from being exposed to space.

Experiment Description & Goal
Student mission objective is to send six organic substances (mescal plant, geode crystals, turquoise, pollen, sugar, and salt) into space to see if any changes in structure appear from being exposed to microgravity environment.

Students will observe each of these substances prior to flight using a SEM microscope to photograph them, noting observations  measurement and qualitatively.

For the Mescal Plant students have a control plant and will continue to grow and monitor the plants for a period of several months after the flight in order to look for any changes in growth. We will observe the structure of crystalline substances and pollen using magnification

Hypothesis
There will be biological changes in particle sizes after exposure to a space environment for all substances.

Analysis
Data taken from scanning electron microscope photos before and after flight. Students will also make qualitative comparisons of the photos of materials pre/post flight. Students will manually input the measurements pre/post flight into logger pro to graph and analyze.
Finally side by side comparisons of photos of materials pre/post flight will be made.