The 2024 Higher Orbits - Go For Launch event wrapped up last week at Lake Superior State University with a team of five ambitious, energetic, space-loving young students winning the competition.
The team, Hydrogen Bonds, consisted of two students from Rudyard, one from Sault Ste. Marie, one from Lake City and the other from Madison, WI.
The Effects of Microgravity on the Performance of Insulin was the winning idea. The team will eventually compete in the national competition in early 2025. The team that ultimately wins will have their design developed and then skyrocketed off into space to the International Space Station (ISS).
It was an idea, or concept, that hit close to home to one of the students.
"We want to test how insulin will work in blood in micro-gravity. We think it might be more potent because of the tendency for fluid to stick together more in space. I am a Type-1 diabetic and we all thought that this would be the best idea. We had other ideas, but this is what we decided," said Lucille Kranendonk, 8th grader at Sault Area Middle School.
The event was not about creating something physical. It was about creating an idea that could eventually be developed and taken into outer space to gain valuable information from.
"It's about the design of the experiment to go into space and onto the International Space Station. The teams put together a design and presented that design to the judges," said Kevin St. Onge, EUP MiSTEM region director.
Astronaut Tony Antonelli was a special guest at the event.
"We live in a world with plenty of challenges. I imagine a future where the challenges we have today are easily solvable. The way to do that is to develop tools," Antonelli said.
Antonelli had nothing but praise for the efforts of the students.
"We need all the brilliant minds that exist anywhere to make this work. There are a lot of children in the world who feel they are in no position to contribute. I tell them that we don't know everything. You are the smart people. It's a super-hard challenge what they are doing here," Antonelli continued.
Michelle Lucas, founder and CEO of Higher Orbits, is inspired to see so many students get excited about events like Higher Orbits.
"While space may seem a little out of reach, it's not. Space is a part of our everyday lives. Being able to bring them project-based hands-on learning, that applies to space that they can then turn back and understand on how it applies to their studies at school is a really powerful tool to keeping them motivated in STEM in school," Lucas said.
In 2022, SPACE SHELL 6 from Sault Area Public Schools, won the national competition.
Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC), partnered with LSSU, MiSTEAM, EUPISD, and local businesses to support The Higher Orbits, Go For Launch! event.
