Brunswick teacher takes student experiments on Zero-G flight
May 27—Middle schoolers at St. John's Catholic School in Brunswick watched their teacher — and their own experiments — soar aboard a zero-gravity flight earlier this month.
Science teacher Karin Paquin was one of eight teachers chosen to fly on a Zero-G plane with the Space for Teachers Embedded Teachers Program. Her most recent flight — which took off from Salina, Kansas, on May 7 — comes amid ongoing efforts to expand space education at the Brunswick Catholic school.
Paquin's eighth-grade students worked with the Romero-Calvo Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology to design a "passive phase separation experiment," which tests how air and water separate in microgravity, according to a news release from the school. Her seventh graders sent up a CubeSat — a small satellite — to investigate the effects of microgravity on ambient sound to understand whether researchers aboard Zero-G flights should wear hearing protection.
"It was very difficult, but it was worth the long hours of brainstorming, building, testing, modifying and retesting," eighth grader Joseph Stratman said. "Knowing it really worked and could impact microfluids in space makes every minute worth it."
Zero-G planes, or reduced-gravity aircraft, simulate the feeling of weightlessness by flying in a parabolic pattern. Such flights are used for astronaut training, research and tourism.
Paquin rode alongside other teachers, high school students and retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, who flew twice on the Space Shuttle Columbia and spent nearly six months living on the International Space Station.
"When I think back on this past year working with Space for Teachers, my students and some incredible collaborators at Georgia Tech, one word comes to mind: transformation," Paquin said.
"Throughout the year, my students were challenged in ways they never expected — especially at the middle-school level. But every step of the way, I believed in them. And behind the scenes, supporting me, were the incredible mentors at Space for Teachers who believed in me."
This wasn't Paquin's first experience in microgravity; she also flew with students' experiments on a Zero-G flight in 2022 as a part of the Teachers in Space Human Flight Program.
"All of a sudden, you just feel weightless," Paquin recalled in an April interview with The Times Record.
Students got to watch Paquin from the Zero-G hangar and onboard the aircraft via livestream on May 7.
Paquin's science classes over the years have had several experiments onboard space flights, thanks to organizations like Space for Teachers and Teachers in Space.
Just last month, another CubeSat designed by St. John's students flew aboard the all-female Blue Origin rocket flight. The St. John's "Launch Lab" allows students to "engage in high-level science with real-world applications," the school said.
"The most amazing thing about this program is that not only were my students learning, but so was I," Paquin said. "I was growing into a better teacher, a stronger colleague and a more reflective person because of the opportunities Space for Teachers provided."
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