Local SpaceLab Competition Students Visit Onn Lab

On January 10, 2023 Prof. Itay Onn hosted a group of 10 middle school students and 2 teachers at his lab, part of the SpaceLab competition of the Ilan Ramon Foundation for which he is an advisor. They were exposed to methods related to the project in the laboratory and at the Faculty Scientific Equipment Center.

Schools from around the country participate in the program, coming up with scientific experiments relevant to life in space. The experiments selected in the national competition are sent to the International Space Station where they are carried out.

Explains Prof. Onn: "The students approached me with an idea for an experiment and I helped them develop it into a feasible experiment and supported them in the scientific aspects of the project. The project is named 'Identifying mechanisms of chromosome instability in microgravity'."

The students will present the project at the national competition that will be held at the end of January in Jerusalem. The purpose of the visit was to demonstrate to the students the scientific methods used in the experiment. Shani Glick is in charge of the project from the students' perspective and Prof. Onn is the scientific advisor. Assisting in the visit were graduate students at the lab and the director of the laboratory, Dr. Avi Matityahu. Dr. Ella Maoz, Dr. Yehuda Gabbai, and Dr. Michael Asa, volunteered to offer the children demonstrations in their fields of expertise.