High school students take part in stellar experiment

The experiment by Bishop Carroll students blasted off to the International Space Station on Monday.

Seven students from Bishop Carroll High School sent a small experiment to the International Space Station.

“We are investigating whether e-coli, the bacteria, is more or less susceptible to the antibiotic which is a form of penicillin in micro gravity or earth gravity conditions,” said Sophie Gobeil, one of the students involved.

The group started working on the project in the spring of 2015. Bishop Carroll is the first Alberta school to get approval from the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program in the U.S. to send their experiment into space. Students and staff are thrilled.

“All of the joys that go with scientific exploration and research and all of the really difficult things you have to work through like delays with the rocket or your experiment not working and persevering through all that and wanting to still discover and find an answer to a problem,” said Elise Vandermeiden, teacher.

While astronauts work on the project in space, the students will run the same experiment on earth to compare the results.

Once all the results are analyzed and compared, they'll be presented at national conference in Washington, D.C.