NASA Drop Tower Competition
for High-School-Aged Student Teams

DIME

Dropping In a Microgravity Environment


UPDATE: September 1, 2006

The DIME program has been cancelled.

Check the NASA web page (text-only page) for possible opportunities for students and educators.

Richard DeLombard
NASA Glenn Research Center

What can be found on this web site:

  1. Introduction

  2. Summaries of this year's teams as well as the past DIME competitions

  3. Selection statistics for the first several years of DIME

  4. Testimonials from past participants
     

  5. DIME announcement - HOW TO ENTER!

  6. DIME Webcast - watch an internet broadcast of student teams

  7. Helpful Information - background material to help you to understand DIME

  8. Check for possible financial support from your state's space grant consortium

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Introduction

DIME is a NASA competition program which allows teams to design and build a science experiment which will then be operated in a NASA microgravity drop tower facility. This program is a project-oriented activity which lasts one school year for the selected teams. Teams will be comprised of high-school-aged students from (for example) a science class, a group of classes, a science club, or a scout troop. A team must have an adult advisor, such as a teacher or parent.

Early in the school year, teams interested in competing will develop an experiment concept, prepare a proposal for an experiment, and submit the proposal to NASA. A NASA panel willevaluate all of the submitted proposals and select the four top-ranked proposals. These four teams will then continue their experiment development and fabrication leading to operation in the NASA drop tower in April.

NASA will provide an expense-paid trip for five representatives of each selected team to attend DIME Drop Days in April at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. During DIME Drop Days, the team representatives will conduct their experiment in the NASA 2.2 Second Drop Tower, analyze their data, tour NASA facilities, and participate in workshops.

The DIME program is open for high-school-aged student teams located in all fifty states of the U.S., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Please note that in past years, one non-U.S. citizen student per team has been allowed to attend DIME Drop Days at NASA. Beginning with the 2005/6 school year, this rule will be changed where only U.S. citizens will be allowed to attend DIME Drop Days at NASA.

Important dates:

Proposal postmark date for the 2005/2006 school year November 1, 2005
Selection announcement December 16, 2005
DIME Drop Days at NASA Glenn April 25-27, 2006
(These are tentative dates in April)

NOTE: Some of this material is in the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (pdf) and requires Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader to access it. Acrobat Reader is available FREE from Adobe.
This does not imply an endorsement by NASA of this product or company.

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How to Enter the DIME Competition

The basic steps of this team competition are:

  1. Form a team of high-school-aged students with at least one adult advisor
  2. Research microgravity science and develop a research question
  3. Prepare and submit a proposal according to the guidelines and rules in the DIME Program Announcement (see below)
After NASA selects the winning proposals:
  1. If selected, the team designs and builds their experimental apparatus
  2. Four students and one adult advisor from each selected team come to NASA Glenn for DIME Drop Days in April to opearte their experiment in the drop tower
  3. Each selected team prepares a final report and submits it to NASA

How To Get Started

The instructions for entering the DIME competition are available on a CD-ROM available by sending your name and postal mailing address to this e-mail address: e-mail request. A CD-ROM will be sent to you which contains the DIME documents, other microgravity educator guides, microgravity information, and a description of the 2.2 Second Drop Tower.

Please note that minor adjustments may be made to the DIME rules. Prior to submitting a proposal, please check the current DIME rules page for possible updates and/or changes. With the production time required to prepare CD-ROMs, the rules on the DIME CDs may not be current, so check the current rules page for the most up-to-date rules.

Current DIME rules

Alternatively, the basic DIME information is contained in three documents which may be downloaded from these links:

  • The DIME Program Announcement (Download 5.3 MB) contains all of the necessary information for submitting entries to the DIME competition.
  • The DIME Educators Resource Guide contains assistance for educators and team advisors with the topic of microgravity. The steps for developing an experiment and proposal are outlined with suggestions for producing a polished proposal.
  • The Experiment Design Requirements document (Download 980 KB) contains the guidelines, requirements, and constraints for designing a team's experiment apparatus to successfully operate in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower.

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DIME Webcast

Watch an internet broadcast of the student teams operating their experiments in the drop tower during DIME Drop Days in April. The webcast for DIME Drop Days 2003 occurred on April 30. Soon, archived versions of the webcast will be available on the DIME broadcast page or the NASA Glenn Internet Broadcasting site.

Archived web-cast videos of the activities are available from these links:

These webcasts utilize the RealPlayer application. If you experience difficulty, check the information on the NASA Glenn Internet Broadcasting site to make sure your browser and RealPlayer software are configured properly.

NOTE: These streaming movies are in the RealPlayer format and require RealPlayer software to properly display the movie in real-time. The RealPlayer software is available FREE from either a special government / education page or a free and trial products page, both from RealNetworks.
This does not imply an endorsement by NASA of this product or company.

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Helpful Information

  • Drop tower curriculum assistance for high school teachers

  • Some aspects of experiments have safety restrictions. Consult the current rules page for restrictions on experimental topics or samples that may be used.

  • Additional information about the 2.2 Second Drop Tower at the NASA Glenn Research Center is available. A description of the drop tower in words, pictures, and movies is available there. The movies available on the tour page provide an insight into experiment operations.
    (Please remember that some of the detailed information on the Drop Tower pages is not applicable to DIME teams.)

  • A microgravity resource list is available for background information on microgravity.

  • These DIME student experiment ideas may spark some concepts by your team.

  • Microgravity scientists and engineers at NASA Glenn Research Center developed a microgravity demonstrator many years ago. These small drop tower have been used over the years to demonstrate microgravity science concepts to schools (K - 12), to the public (e.g. air shows), and university events. A microgravity demonstrator user's guide is available from the drop tower web site or directly from the free DIME CD.

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has created some information for constructing a demonstration drop tower based on one they constructed several years ago.
  • A top level DIME schedule shows the major steps of this program through the school year.

  • FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions - You may be wondering about an aspect of the DIME program which is answered here.

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Possible support by your state's space grant consortium

The NASA-supported space grant consortium in your state may be able to support your team during your participation in DIME. A directory by state is maintained on the WWW of all the space consortia across the country. Eligibility for DIME is nationwide, so consult that list for the consortium in your state, DC, or Puerto Rico.

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Who has won the DIME competitions?

Check these pages to read a little about the DIME winning teams and their experiments.

2005/2006 CURRENT YEAR! - Teams from Tualatin, Oregon; Cincinnati, Ohio; Northbrook, Illinois; and Bay Village, Ohio.
2004/2005 Teams from Tualatin, Oregon; Columbus, Georgia; Northbrook, Illinois; and Troy, Michigan.
2003/2004 Teams from Miami, Florida; Akron, Ohio; Troy, Michigan; and Cincinnati, Ohio.
2002/2003 Teams from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Troy, Michigan; Cleveland Heights, Ohio; and Cincinnati, Ohio. (first nation-wide year)
2001/2002 Teams from Bay Village, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
2000/2001 Teams from Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. (DIME pilot year)

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This page maintained by
Richard DeLombard, NASA Glenn Research Center.
richard.delombard@nasa.gov
Last Updated September 1, 2006