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Flies in Space Website. C.S. Elland¹, B.J. Navarro², J. Fernandez³, B.H. Day⁴, K. Sato¹, S. Bhattacharya², J. Bulkowski¹. ¹Lockheed Martin Space Operations, Moffett Field, CA, ²NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, ³Education Associates Program, Moffett Field, CA & San Francisco State University, ⁴Planners Collaborative.

   NASA’s Flies in Space Web site (http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/flies/) is designed for middle school students (grades 5-8). It provides information about current NASA space biology research, the scientific method, fruit flies, and the immune system. Students can also communicate with expert fly researchers by asking questions of the scientists on-line, and making predictions about the Flies in Space experiment. The Flies In Space website was designed to reflect features of the FIT (Drosophila) experiment, which will fly on the space shuttle in the near future. The goals of the FIT experiment include characterizing the effects of space travel (including weightlessness and radiation exposure) on fruit flies’ immune systems. Fruit flies have long been used by scientists worldwide because their genome has been completely mapped, their short life cycle enables multiple generations to be studied in a short amount of time, and they have many analogous processes to humans. The student materials include pre- and post-tests. The educator documents will assist teachers to use this website. The Flies in Space Website in the Classroom provides information about the national standards addressed in the site and includes a worksheet (with answer key) that students can complete as they explore the site. The Flies in Space Activity Guide enables educators to conduct hands-on activities relating to the Flies in Space experiment in the classroom. Both the student and educator pages are available in both English and Spanish.