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YOUTUBE Gives Egyptian Students An Opportunity To Fly To Space
Published Oct 11, 2011
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YouTube and Lenovo in cooperation with Space Adventures and space agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), announced YouTube Space Lab, a worldwide initiative which extends to the Middle East that challenges 14-18 year-old students to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. The winner/winning team’s experiment will be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS), making it the largest science lesson streamed live for the world to watch on YouTube.
A prestigious panel of scientists, astronauts and educators which include His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, astronaut and payload specialist aboard space shuttle mission STS-51-G in 1985, and the first Arab and Muslim to travel to space. The panel also includes renowned theoretical physicist, cosmologist and professor Stephen Hawking, NASA Associate Administrator for Education, Leland Melvin, and astronaut and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté – will judge the entries with input from the YouTube community. Students in two age categories, 14-16 years old and 17-18 years old, either alone or in groups of up to three, may submit a YouTube video describing their experiment to YouTube.com/SpaceLab.
Six regional finalists will gather in Washington DC in March 2012 to experience a ZERO-G flight and receive other prizes. From them, two global winners, one from each age group, will be announced and will see their experiments performed 250 miles above Earth and live streamed on YouTube. Additionally, the global winners/winning teams will get to choose a unique space experience as a prize: either a trip to Japan to watch their experiment blast off to space or a trip to Star City, Russia, the training center for Russian cosmonauts.
Space Lab is one component of YouTube's broader educational offering, including YouTube.com/EDU, home to a wealth of high-quality educational videos from educators of all subjects and levels, YouTube for Schools, a new pilot program aimed at giving educators access to the broad library of educational content from inside their school's network, as well as YouTube.com/Teachers, a resource providing teachers with guidance on how to effectively incorporate YouTube and video into their classrooms (please visit youtube.com/t/education for more information).
“As a company committed to the next generation of scientists, YouTube launched Space Lab to allow ordinary students the extraordinary opportunity of having their experiment carried out in space,” said Zahaan Bharmal, YouTube Space Lab. “The Space Lab channel will serve as a home base on YouTube for creating, sharing, and discovering the best space and science-related videos in the world. Our goal is to encourage students to explore the world of science, earthbound and beyond, by first accessing YouTube, and ultimately space.”
As the leading PC supplier to students of all ages, Lenovo enhances learning via PC and tablet technology solutions as well as by spearheading progressive education research led by Lenovo’s research arm, the Education Research Initiative (ERI).
“We’ve worked with educators around the world for more than 20 years to empower teaching and learning with innovative technology products that connect classrooms digitally with the global knowledge economy,” Mike Schmedlen, Director of Worldwide Education at Lenovo. “Space Lab complements our commitment to education by giving teachers everywhere an unprecedented opportunity to spark students’ creativity and learning, and together help unlock some of the mysteries of the universe.”
Details and timeline:
Oct. 11, 2011:
Launch date for student video submissions. Students may submit a two-minute video explaining the following:
• Experiment Question: The scientific question the entrant wants to test.
• Hypothesis: An educated guess at answering the experiment question.
• Method: A simple explanation of the methods used to conduct the experiment testing the hypothesis in microgravity.
• Results: The expected results of the experiment.
Entrants may submit up to three experiments in one of two scientific disciplines, either biological or physical sciences.
Dec. 7, 2011:
Submission deadline.
Jan. 3, 2012:
Announcement of the top 60 finalists, at which time judging and public voting will begin.
March 2012:
Global winners (two individuals/teams chosen from the regional winners, one in each age category) will be announced.
In addition to the trip to the US, the two global winners/teams will have their experiment live streamed from space, take a ZERO-G flight, receive a Lenovo IdeaPad laptop and choose one of two trips:
A) Tokyo, Japan, to tour the JAXA facilities and watch the rocket containing their experiment take off in 2012; or
B) Once they are 18 years old, an astronaut training experience in Star City, Russia, the training facility for Russian cosmonauts. The training will include many of the same training classes and simulations that turn regular people into real astronauts as well as a VIP tour of Moscow, and personalized souvenirs including a spaceflight suit, and more.
The remaining four regional winners will also receive a trip to the US, a ZERO-G flight, and a Lenovo IdeaPad laptop.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Trans – Arabian Creative Communications (TRACCS)
Mona Seif
Tel: 33046860
Email: mona.seif@traccs.net
Hind Rasheed
Google
Email: Hindr@google.com
Tel: +971 555106669
For more information on the program, including the official rules, please visit youtube.com/spacelab or our press site at https://sites.google.com/site/ytspacelab/press.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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