Back in 2015, students in Maggie Samudio’s second-grade class at Cumberland Following Dr. Collicott’s suggestion, Ms.
suggestion, Ms. Samudio’s children at Cumberland got to
Elementary School in West Lafayette, Ind., were contemplating an offbeat science
question: If a firefly went to space, would it still be able to light up as it floated in
zero gravity?
Ms. Samudio said she would ask a friend of hers, Steven Collicott, an aerospace
professor at nearby Purdue University, for the answer.
“He teaches a class on zero gravity, and he would be the perfect person to answer
the question,” Ms. Samudio recalled in an email.
A day later, Dr. Collicott replied, and Ms. Samudio was surprised by his answer:
Instead of guessing, why not actually build the experiment and send it to space?
Blue Origin, the rocket company started by Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of
Amazon, was planning to offer the ability for schools to fly small experiments on its
New Shepard suborbital spacecraft for as little as $8,000.
“That is a game changer,” said Erika Wagner, the payload sales director at Blue
Origin. “Kids as young as elementary school are flying things to space.”
Dr. Collicott, who had sent several fluid flow experiments on New Shepard
launches, pointed Ms. Samudio and her second-graders to Blue Origin.
“For the small payload 4 inches square by 8 inches tall, we’re able to fly that for
half the cost of high school football uniforms,” Dr. Collicott said. “So really any
school district now that affords football can afford spaceflight.”
Cumberland Elementary has not been the only school to see the value of paying
for an experiment aboard the New Shepard rocket. A Montessori middle school in
Colorado sent up a sensor package designed and programmed by the students.
An Alabama high school launched an experiment to test temperature fluctuations
in microgravity. And this past December, an elementary school in Ohio sent up
baby jellyfish.
On board for the latest flight, which launched Tuesday, were 1.2 million tomato
seeds, which will be distributed to students in 15,000 classes, kindergarten through
high school, across the United States and Canada.
work, collaborating with Purdue students in Dr. Collicott’s classes.
“For the next two years, I had aeronautical engineers in my second-grade
classroom teaching mini-lessons on basic principles of flight and propulsion as well
as the basic principles of ‘firefly’ chemistry,” Ms. Samudio said.
On Dec. 12, 2017, the firefly experiment was on board New Shepard. It did not
contain any actual fireflies. “It appears when scared, fireflies don’t light up,” Dr.
Collicott said. “And we were concerned that the boost would scare them. And then
there’s also issues of I don’t know how to keep fireflies alive and keep them
happy.”
Instead, the apparatus replicated the chemistry of how fireflies generate light, with
syringes mixing the glow-creating substances together as the capsule reached the
top of the trajectory more than 60 miles above West Texas. A tiny video camera
recorded what happened in the payload box.
Dr. Collicott attended the launch, and two days later, was back in Ms. Samudio’s
classroom presenting the results.
Fireflies can indeed glow in space.
“That kind of turnaround is just amazing, that spaceflight to these students is not
distant,” Dr. Collicott said. “It happens fast. It’s kind of cool.”
The space experiment wrapped into a larger project undertaken by Ms. Samudio’s
classes. One of her students, Kayla Xu, had noted with distress that most states
had a state insect, and Indiana did not, and she wanted to fix that.
That effort succeeded too. On March 23, 2018, Governor Eric Holcomb went to
Cumberland Elementary School to sign a bill that declared the Say’s firefly, a
species native to the area, the state insect of Indiana.
“Several parents told me that the simple question of asking their child what they
had done in school that day exploded into amazing family conversations, extra
reading and research, and the contemplation of future personal pursuits and
goals,” Ms. Samudio said.
Informal Letter Format - Address relative, you must be extremely respectful and considerate.
One way to determine the tonality of your letter is to remember how you talk to the
The first thing to write is your address, i.e. the address of the writer (basically, the person in a conversation. And then apply the same syntax and sentiments to the
sender’s address). We usually write the address on the left-hand side of the page letter.
at the very top. The address should be accurate and complete. 
 
Even when writing to close friends or relatives the address must be written, so they
can reply back to the letter with ease. If the recipient of the letter is in another Informal Letter Format - Conclusion
country, do not forget to write your country as well in the address.
In the conclusive paragraph sum up the reason for writing the letter, i.e. summarize
  the letter. Say a meaningful and affectionate goodbye to the reader. And do not
forget to invite the reader to write back or reply to your letter. It shows an intention
Informal Letter Format - Date to keep the conversation going.
Next just below the address we write the date. This allows the reader to have a  
reference as to when the informal letter was written. He can then relate better to
the contents of the letter. The date, preferably, shold be in expanded form. Signature
  There is no one way to sign off informal letters. Since they do not follow a strict
format, you may sign off as you please. Some commonly used phrases are
Informal Letter Format - Greeting
Now since you know the person you are writing to, the greeting can be informal as 1. Lots of Love 
well. If it is a friend or someone close to your age you can greet them by their first 2. Best, 
name, like “Dear Alex”.  3. Best Wishes, 
4. Kind Regards, 
If you are writing to your relative like your mother/father/aunt/uncle etc, you may 5. Kindly, 
greet them as such, for example, “Dear Mom”. And if you are writing to an elder
person, someone you respect greatly you can address them as Mr or Mrs. Like
say for example you were writing a congratulatory letter to your teacher, it can be
addressed as “Dear Mrs. Alex”.
 
 
Informal Letter Format - Introductory Paragraph
And now we begin writing the actual letter. The introductory paragraph sets the
tone for the whole letter. You might begin by asking the recipient about their well
being. Or you may say that you hope the letter finds them in good health and great
spirits. The opening of informal letters should be casual and comforting. It must not
be formal and direct as in business letters.
 
Body of the Letter
The letter overall should maintain a friendly tone. But you have to adjust the
language and the wordings according to who you are writing to. With a friend, you
can afford to be very casual and slang even. But if you are writing to an elder
Format Max. 6 points
1. sender's address,
2. date,
3. receiver's address,
4. subject/heading,
5. salutation,
6. Complimentary close. 

Content Max. 10 points

Expression Max. 10 points

1. grammatical accuracy, appropriate words and spelling 

2.  coherence and relevance of ideas and style 

Total ____ / 26
Your mail must contain this information:
1. Why is this article important for the receiver?
2. What did the teacher was proposed to do?
3. Was only a school or more tahn one which have made it?
4. Why this could be important for education?
5. What are the benefits that the students have obtained doing this experiment?

Final date: Sunday 18th, 2 p.m.

Vocabulary:

Offbeat: poco convencional

Firefly: luciernaga
Afford: permitirse
Baby jellyfish: cria de medusa
Scared: asustadas
Boost: lanzamiento
Syringes: jeringa, jeringuilla
Payload box: caja de carga
Turnaround: cambio radical
Wrap into: incorporarse a
Distress: pesar, angustia