Covid Impact: due to the pandemic the SSEP annual conferences in 2020, 2021, and 2022 could not be held.
A group shot of the SSEP student researcher delegates presenting on the second day of the 2018 National Conference, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, June 29, 2018. Click on the Image to Zoom.
The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum hold an annual SSEP National Conference in the nation’s capital in June/July. The conference is either held at the Museum on the National Mall, or the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, adjacent to Dulles airport. Student research delegates from communities participating in the last 5 SSEP Missions present on their experiment designs, and those teams that flew experiments report on analysis and results. We want to immerse students in the experience of a science conference. It is fitting. If SSEP is dedicated to letting students step into the shoes of scientists and engineers, then a conference should be part of the experienc
At the bottom of this page are sample video clips of student team oral presentations at the upper elementary, middle, high school, and undergraduate levels. All student oral presentations are videotaped and are archived by SSEP. You can watch all presentations on the Scientific Return and Reporting pages. Also at the bottom of the page is a conference photo album.
The conference includes featured presentations by nationally recognized space scientists and engineers that passionately talk about exploration on the frontier, and inspire many young women and men to follow in their footsteps. Watch the sample video clip below of astronaut Don Thomas who flew on 4 Space Shuttle missions. Visit the Videos of Conference Featured Presentations page, to watch all presentations dating back to the 2014 Conference.
The conference also includes open mic time for Community Impressions, where attendees – students, teachers, administrators, and parents – talk about the impact of SSEP in their community. Watch the video clip below for the Community Impressions segment at the 2017 Conference. Visit the SSEP Impact from Conference Attendees page to watch Community Impressions segments dating back to 2013.
Expectations for Student Delegates : All students attending the conference that are part of SSEP experiment design teams shall present, either individually or as part of a team, an oral PowerPoint presentation in the conference venue, and a poster version of their PowerPoint to the visiting public. Each presentation shall include the science addressed by the experiment and why, the essential question that drove experiment definition, and the design of the experiment, including procedures for analysis of results (e.g., comparison to a ground truth experiment.) For student teams that:
a. did not have their experiment selected for flight, the presentation should report on their ground truth experimental results, and possible hypotheses as to what they might have found if the experiment had been done on orbit and why.
b. had a flight experiment and it returned from orbit well in advance of the conference, the presentation should include formal experiment analysis and results.
c. had a flight experiment, but it returned to Earth just in advance of the conference, the presentation should report on preliminary results from the ground truth and flight experiments.
d. have a flight experiment, but it has not yet flown, the presentation should report on preliminary ground truth results if possible, and possible hypotheses as to what they might find when the experiment is done on orbit and why.
e. have a flight experiment currently on ISS, the presentation should include the current state of activities for both on-orbit experiment and ground truth experiments.
The Center is honored to be partnering with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the annual SSEP National Conference. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is a SSEP National Partner, and is also the venue for meetings of the SSEP Step 2 Review Board where the flight experiments are selected for each SSEP flight opportunity.
Explore prior SSEP National Conferences via these pages–
