The Young Scientists Program and Vermont Elementary School make radio contact with the International Space Station

Initiating Contact in 3…2…1! – Originally Published November 12, 2019

By Rita Barakat

After over a year of proposal-drafting, internal preparations and establishing partnerships with dedicated, licensed ham radio technicians in the Los Angeles area, students at Vermont Avenue Elementary School (pictured above) became the first K-5 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to participate in an ARISS radio contact event. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a volunteer organization that recruits licensed amateur radio technicians and pairs them with educators to schedule designated times and dates with NASA for initiating radio contact with the International Space Station (ISS). ARISS partners directly with NASA to make these contacts possible, and due to the incredibly packed schedule of the crew members on the ISS, only 15 contacts across the world occur in a calendar year, making such contact slots highly coveted and prestigious. A competition was held at the school in the early Fall of 2019, facilitated by Vermont Elementary School teachers and the leadership staff of YSP, to select 10 students whose questions for the ISS crew were thoughtful, unique and “not easily Google-able”. These students had the opportunity to ask their questions directly to astronaut and ISS Commander Luca Parmitano (from the Italian crew on-board the ISS Expedition 60) during a tight, approximately 9-minute contact window in the early afternoon of Monday, October 28th, 2019. The contact period itself was limited by the angle at which the ISS was due to pass over the elementary school on that particular date, and directional and radial antennas installed on the roof of a building just outside the multipurpose room (pictured below) at the school allowed for precise tracking of the space station during this contact period.

Amateur (Ham) Radio Team Members installing the primary antenna and two back-up antennas on the roof above the Multipurpose Room at Vermont Elementary School. From left: Ron Grassl, Brian Johnson, and Bob Koepke. 

In addition to being part of a truly historic event for the school district and the community more broadly, students participated in a modified version of the ISS ABOVE curriculum, established by ISS ABOVE creator Liam Kennedy and in collaboration with myself (Rita Barakat) and DJ Kast of YSP. Students learned about the various interstellar forces that act upon our planet and other celestial bodies in our solar system, as well as the kinds of research projects scientists on-board the space station conduct. Students also engaged in hands-on, inquiry-based science activities (some images of which are shown below) that focused on specific aspects of life in space, including how to eat and sleep in a microgravity environment such as that on the space station.

 Liam Kennedy (center), the developer of the ISS-ABOVE, with students from Ms. Campos’ 4th grade class.

A 4th grade student plots the orbital path of the International Space Station on the surface of an orange, to understand how mercator (flat) maps are generated.

Immediately after the contact event, fourth grade teacher Ms. Elsa Campos commented that “one of my students turned around, looked at me and said ‘We really talked to a real astronaut! Wow!’ The look on his face: absolutely priceless.”

We at YSP would like to thank the following individuals and organizations, without whom this contact would not have been possible: the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) organization, for supporting the event and coordinating with NASA to ensure that scheduling for the contact was possible; the amazing Ham Radio Team (Bob Koepke (AA6TB), Ron Grassl (AG6ST), Norm Thorn (K6UU), Darrell Warren (KA6OSC) and Brian Johnson (AB6UI)), whose collective radio expertise and equipment made this event possible; Liam Kennedy and the ISS ABOVE curriculum/ software and hardware, which played an integral role in preparing students for the contact event; all of the teachers, administrators, staff and students at Vermont Elementary School especially Principal Ms. Patricia Ferguson and Coordinator Ms. Maribeth Baccaro, who were beyond patient and accommodating with the planning and rescheduling necessary for this contact to happen; the media and public support from the Annenberg School of Communications, the Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti, who helped expand the breadth of circulation about this historic event, the Good Neighbors Grant for helping us fund the event, and of course, all of our YSP Teaching and Leadership staff, as well as the full-time staff at the Joint Educational Project who provided assistance throughout the journey. YSP and Vermont Elementary School would also like to thank Congresswoman Karen Bass and Jacqueline Hamilton, a representative from the Congresswoman’s office, for marking this historic event by issuing certificates to the students and YSP staff who participated in the contact.