This was announced by the Ministry of Education and Science, Ukrinform reported.

“According to the decision of the SSEP international jury, the Skolivskyi ZZSO I-III Year No. 2 team, in partnership with the online school SchoolToGo team, became the winners of the SSEP All-Ukrainian school space experiments competition, which was held from September to December 2023,” the message reads.

According to the Ministry, SSEP (Student Spaceflight Experiments Program) is a comprehensive program for the development of scientific and STEAM education. Its participants have the opportunity to send microgravity research mini-labs to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard NASA’s SpaceX Dragon ship from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

The Small Sciences Academy, which coordinates the project, will participate in SSEP in 2021 and organize this competition for the third time.

The name of the students’ project is “Production of biomedical hydrogels in microgravity conditions”. The team was particularly interested in media reports regarding the use of hydrogel by frontline healthcare workers.

Hydrogels can perform functions such as controlled drug release systems in space conditions, substrate for growing cells or plants, desiccants, hydrogel membranes, humectants, and can also stop bleeding and heal wounds.

Students are currently conducting research in the laboratory and preparing samples for the microgravity research mini-lab that will later be sent to the ISS.

As reported, the international Techhackathon Teens in AI will be held in March 2024. Competitions are held in more than 40 countries around the world. Teams consisting of 5-6 students aged 12-18 from state and municipal educational institutions can participate in the hackathon.

Photo: NASA