Their experiments were videotaped and have been used as an effective teaching tool in thousands of schools. Because of this success, a second group of toys was flown on the STS-54 mission in January 1993. Dr. Sumners, working with a multi-grade and subject area educational advisory group, selected the toys from hundreds of possibilities. This videotape is the record of the actions of those toys in microgravity. In Space II flight was conceived as an experiment in which the Shuttle crew members and the student viewers of the videotape would be co-investigators.
Students begin the experiment by investigating how selected toys function on Earth.
To gain the greatest benefit from this videotape, students should then develop a set of experimental questions about how these toys will function in microgravity. Through their own experiments, students develop hypotheses to answer their questions. Students test their hypotheses by watching the videotape to see what actually happened in space. While not all student questions will be addressed by the orbital experiments, enough information can be gained from watching the videotape to accept, refine, or develop new hypotheses and explanations for what was observed. Many of the toys chosen for the flight are readily available from toy stores.