"Spiders in space": A collaboration between education and research

On 16 January 2003, eight Australian spiders embarked on a 16-day mission into space on board the space shuttle Columbia STS-107. The experiment was the culmination of a three-year collaborative programme between students from Glen Waverley Secondary College, RMIT University and the Royal Melbourne Zoo (Thompson et al., 2000), and put the students in direct contact with established space entities NASA, BioServe and SPACEHAB as well as with international researchers. The students were involved in all aspects of the design of the experiment as well as in investigations into issues such flight clearance and mission simulation. Despite the tragic loss of Columbia and her crew during the STS-107 mission, the project highlighted the educational benefits of school students being part of a real-life space science project.