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THE PROJECT AQUARIUS-XENOPUS ON THE SOYUZ FLIGHT ANDROMИDE TO ISS WAS SUPPLEMENTED BY A EUROPEAN PUPIL PROJECT. E. Horn¹, S. Bцser¹, Pupils and Teachers from Ulm² and Nancy³, H. Membre⁴, and C. Dournon⁴. ¹Gravitational Physiology, Univ of Ulm, Ulm, Germany; ²Schubart-Gymnasium, Ulm, Germany; ³Varoquaux High School, Tomblaine-Nancy, France; ⁴EA 3442 Genetic, Signaling, Differentiation, Universitй Henri Poincarй, Vandoeuvre-lиs-Nancy cedex, France.

   The German-French biological experiment AQUARIUS-XENOPUS which flew on the Soyuz taxi flight Andromиde to the International Space Station ISS (launched October 21, 2001 in Baikonur/Kazakhstan) was extended by an outreach project. Pupils of class 10 to 12 from Ulm/Germany and Tomblaine-Nancy/France were involved in this actual space experiment. They recorded swimming behavior of Xenopus laevis tadpoles by video used as a 1g-ground control for similar observations in µg-exposed tadpoles on ISS. The pupils were instructed to perform all experimental steps following the protocol of the video recordings on ISS which were done by the French cosmonaut Claudie Haignerй. After the flight, they evaluated swimming activity of both ground controls and space animals using parameters such as type, velocity and acceleration of swimming, or the distribution patterns of tadpoles within the miniaquaria.  The pupil project included theoretical components to introduce them to the field of gravitational biology. Nancy pupils established a homepage (www.xenope.com) about background and aim of their scientific project while Ulm pupils received an extended theoretical and practical education (1) about gravity effects on biological systems and what gravity means for life on Earth, and (2) on hardware used for biological research in Space.     A feature of the project was the exchange of ideas between all pupils by internet and meetings which took place in Ulm (June 2001), Nancy (February 2002) and Paris (May 2002). We consider our approach as a successful way to include young people in space experiments on a cheap cost level and to bring ideas of gravitational biology into curricula of European schools.  (Supported by the German Space Agency (DLR), the French Space Agency (CNES), the City of Ulm and local institutions of the Nancy region)