Hey all,
I just had an idea for using space tourism to boost science education and wanted to bounce it off this community. We've seen that prizes can be used to boost space tourism, and I had the idea that it could work in another way as well.
Some of the educational problems here in the U.S. are low educational results, demotivated students and poor science learning.
Parents have often bribed kids if they get straight A's and such. Suppose we used the idea as well.
For all high school students who get an A in at least 1 AP math/science class and who graduate with at least a 3.75 GPA:
In your graduating year, you will be able to sign up online for a National Student Space Lottery. Once you enter your information, the computer will get your transcript from your high school to verify eligibility. Each year 100 seniors, say, will be randomly selected along with perhaps an additional 50 from inner-city schools (total 150). The lucky winners will receive a free trip into space on Space Ship Two or its competitors. The total cost to the government would be about $30 million for the flights, plus a few million for administration / computer setup etc.
The benefit to the country would be two-fold. First, it would guarantee a market for space tourism, increasing venture capital spending and adding jobs to the economy, and second it would give students a reason to make science and space exciting and help motivate them to improve learning. This would make our education dollars more productive and improve science learning in the U.S.
What do you all think? Any suggestions for improvement?
I just had an idea for using space tourism to boost science education and wanted to bounce it off this community. We've seen that prizes can be used to boost space tourism, and I had the idea that it could work in another way as well.
Some of the educational problems here in the U.S. are low educational results, demotivated students and poor science learning.
Parents have often bribed kids if they get straight A's and such. Suppose we used the idea as well.
For all high school students who get an A in at least 1 AP math/science class and who graduate with at least a 3.75 GPA:
In your graduating year, you will be able to sign up online for a National Student Space Lottery. Once you enter your information, the computer will get your transcript from your high school to verify eligibility. Each year 100 seniors, say, will be randomly selected along with perhaps an additional 50 from inner-city schools (total 150). The lucky winners will receive a free trip into space on Space Ship Two or its competitors. The total cost to the government would be about $30 million for the flights, plus a few million for administration / computer setup etc.
The benefit to the country would be two-fold. First, it would guarantee a market for space tourism, increasing venture capital spending and adding jobs to the economy, and second it would give students a reason to make science and space exciting and help motivate them to improve learning. This would make our education dollars more productive and improve science learning in the U.S.
What do you all think? Any suggestions for improvement?
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