Indian Students To Put Experiment On Shuttle

A handful of Fort Hall science enthusiasts will be the first Idaho and first American Indian students to send an experiment with the space shuttle.

“It reflects the honor and the good of the whole tribe, and hopefully the whole state,” said Fort Hall High School science teacher Ed Galindo of the Shoshone-Bannock students’ selection to work with NASA.

Galindo started meeting once a week with students to have fun with math and science. They call themselves the Native American Science Association.

The students plan to grow crystals on earth and in space at the same time to see how the lack of gravity affects growth and symmetry.

They have reserved a spot on board the shuttle in October, 1996.

Ali Siahpush, a mechanical engineer at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, attends the weekly sessions and helped arrange the experiment through his contacts at Utah State University and NASA’s space grant educational program.