U.S and international students between the ages of 11-18 years of age, not attending a higher education institution, may participate in the program. However, the sounding rocket mission is only available for U.S. citizens or permanent residents living in the US or abroad. The balloon mission is available is for international and U.S. students.

Unless enrolled in the Online Student Academy through courses.iedu.org or Outschool, students must have an educator (formal, informal, non-formal, homeschool - an adult) register for Cubes in Space and deliver the program.

Yes - non-US citizens may participate in the program but can only have their experiments fly on the balloon mission. US citizens or permanent residents living outside the US may participate in the program. [new paragraph] - Students from countries appearing on the NASA Designated Counties List may be subject to exclusion from the Cubes in Space program. Please see this document for countries appearing on the list:
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/designated-country-list-4.21.2023.pdf

No.

A student may enroll in the ION+ or Online Student Academy courses. For students 11-13 years of age, a Cubes in Space course will be available through Outschool in late winter 2025.

For educators, there is no cost to sign up for the FREE Program and submit an Application for Spaceflight on behalf of your student(s). And for any other fee-based program (Standard and Student Online Academy), there is no cost to submit and Application for Spaceflight. However if an experiment concept is selected as a result of the Application for Spaceflight review, AND if the student(s) wish to build and fly the selected experiment, there is a small flight fee of $75.

• 1. All participants must pay for shipping experiments to our offices. Shipping costs vary based upon package weight and location.
• 2. For INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPANTS, you must pay for ALL shipping costs to and from your location to our office in Virginia for your experiment.

Sign up for the program. From the courses.iedu.world page, select the program or course that interests you. You will be taken to a page that provides all the information for each program or course. Or, return to the homepage and view the promotional video. You can also visit "Resources" from the top toolbar and view the "How the Program Works for Educators" or the "How the Program Works for Students" infographics. Our program flyer is also under "Resources".

An Educator is an adult who registers for the Cubes in Space program to gain access to content and resources to facilitate the program for students. The Educators submit Applications for Spaceflight on behalf of students. If a student's experiment is selected for spaceflight, the Sponsor must complete the Spaceflight Certification Form that verifies that all contents of the experiment are fully compliant with all NASA and Cubes in Space regulations.

Any adult that is a formal, informal or homeschool educator qualifies and can register. In addition, adults involved with after-school and out-of-school clubs and organizations may register too. Even a parent that wants to teach their child can be an Educator. After an adult registers for the program, the Cubes in Space staff does verify the identities of the adult participants.

The primary responsibility of the Educator is to guide the students through a series of steps in order to design an experiment, create scientific diagrams of the experiment, and submit the proposal and diagrams as components of the Application for Spaceflight. Educators are provided a curriculum and resources to guide the students through the research, design and proposal writing processes. An Educator is meant to be a "guide on the side." Following the directions and activity plans will allow Educators to guide students to become more self-directed learners. With a little prompting from the Educator, the students will initiate discussions and take the lead to discover answers to the questions they generate. The Educator this there to provide some instruction and to help keep the students on track for success.

No. There are resources available (not with the FREE program) that provide step-by-step instructions, answer keys, videos, presentations and even scripts to support Educators in helping the students learn about sounding rockets, zero-pressure scientific balloons, researching, and proposal writing. There are even materials to guide Educators to help students organize their thoughts during the exploration, researching and learning processes.

We will not sugar coat it - facilitating the program is a time commitment. The amount of time it takes depends on several factors. If you have older or more advanced students, you may need to spend less time teaching students the fundamentals of scientific inquiry or how to research. If this is your first time as and Educator, you will obviously spend more time than veteran Educators. No matter what, even if you are a returning Educator, give yourself at least day or two to review all of the materials. You will spend at least 15+ "contact hours" facilitating the course. The students really become immersed in the program; therefore, you will probably spend more time with them than you originally thought. But this is a GREAT thing as you learn along with them and become part of their excitement!

The Cubes in Space program does not directly interact with minors, with the exception of the Cubes in Space Academy. The Educators are the Points of Contact between the Cubes in Space staff and students. Therefore, it is critically important that Educators check the online system messages and/or their emails frequently to receive messages from the Cubes in Space staff. If a student's experiment is selected for spaceflight, the Educator must complete the Spaceflight Certification Form that verifies that all contents of the experiment are fully compliant with all NASA and Cubes in Space regulations.

Within our course platform, we send individual and group messages. The email messages will originate from iEDU. If you do not receive messages from us, please check your SPAM folder, clear your cache or check with your network administrator to unblock messages from our domain. In addition, we post weekly in the Communities forum in the online program environment.

We strongly encourage people to subscribe or follow us on @CubesinSpace on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also join our mailing list newsletters and other announcements.

No. Powered experiments, which include atmospheric sensors, are permitted on the scientific balloon missions. However, priority will be given to Cubes in Space ION+ experiments for powered payload space.

Educators submit an Intent to Fly Form (IFF) providing the name of experiment and the stated hypothesis. If the IFF is approved, then an invitation to submit an Application for Spaceflight will be sent to the Educators. With the Preliminary Design Review, constructive feedback and requests for revisions are common. Upon submission of a Revised Application for Spaceflight, a Review Panel consisting of aerospace science, engineering and education professionals will conduct a Final Design Review to evaluate Application for Spaceflight proposals.

Note: if a country already has a suborbital or orbital science student flight program associated with its space agency, then priority will be given to experiments from countries that do not provide student flight opportunities.

Students are only limited by their imaginations and ability for their experiment data to connect to an Earth or space-based problem or need. Here are just some of the experiment categories: biology, biochemistry, biomedicine, microbiology, geology, material science, agriculture, atmospheric science, medical science, pharmacology, chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, indigenous medicine and agriculture, hydrology, etc. Be sure the students clearly explain why they need a space or near-space environment to test their experiment.

Check your SPAM folder or ask your school division's technical system administrator to remove a SPAM block for emails coming from @idoodledu.org or @cubesinspace.com addresses.

You can reset your password by going to the Sign In page at courses.iedu.org. Select Sign In>Forgot My Password. After inputting your email address and selecting Forgot My Password. You will receive an email from iEDU with a link to reset your password. Click on Change My Password. This email can take 5-10 minutes to be received. Note that if you click Forgot My Password many times, multiple emails will be sent, and only the reset link in the most recent email will work.

You may change your email address in the Profile section of your online course account. Contact info@cubesinspace.com if you need additional assistance.