ISS Crew Conducted Educational Experiment

August 26, 2004

To help teach hearing impaired students the physics of sound, the crew aboard the International Space Station conducted an educational experiment, demonstrating a musical instrument called a chicken shake. The crew showed how microgravity affects the egg-shaped percussion instrument, similar to Cuban maracas without handles. The sessions will be used in educator workshops.

NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke conducted another imaging session of the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3 (BCAT-3) experiment. Fincke took a total of 157 photos documenting the formation of particle suspensions in homogenized liquids. Possible future applications of the colloidal alloy experiments are photonic crystals for telecommunications and computer applications and extremely low threshold lasers, as well as improved use of supercritical fluids for food extractions, pharmaceuticals, dry cleaning, and rocket propellants.

Both Fincke and Gennady Padalka conducted a session with the Educational Payload Operations by demonstrating a musical instrument called a chicken shake. Crewmembers showed how microgravity affects the egg-shaped percussion instrument that is very similar to Cuban maracas without handles. In Caribbean or South American orchestras, chicken shakes are used in the percussion section to add to its variety of rhythms, textures and tone colors. The sessions were videotaped and downlinked for later use by the Maryland Science Center in educator workshops designed to educate hearing impaired students about sound and the physics of sound.

NASA's payload operations team at the Marshall Center coordinates science activities on Space Station.

Source: NASA