International School science teacher Cheryl McClure was given a unique gift from her students last week: four standard U.S. quarters, except these had been to outer space.

The quarters had traveled thousands of miles outside of the earth’s atmosphere as part of a science program called Cubes in Space, which allows students to write and submit proposals for science experiments to be conducted by the organization, in partnership with NASA.

Four teams made up of 13 International School students were selected to send their small research projects — which had to fit in a 4-centimeter-by-4-centimeter cube — up on a weather balloon or rocket. Two of the cubes were launched earlier this summer and returned to the students for analysis during the first week of school, while the other two were scheduled to launch this week.

McClure prompted all of her seventh grade students last academic year to design a small experiment. For extra credit, the students could submit them to the Cubes in Space program.

Amateur astronomer and Kelsey Creek resident Vasuki Seshadri came in to help the students solidify their proposals. The small experiments had to fall within certain parameters, and scientists and members of the Cubes in Space program often followed-up with questions about the pitches.

“The Cubes in Space people were really good about pushing back and challenging students with questions,” McClure said. “I liked that it changed the tide a little bit. For the first time, I wasn’t their audience. They had to convince NASA.”

For example, in an experiment involving magnets, students had to figure out how to see if space changed magnetization. If the magnets reconnected upon reentry, how would they know if the magnetization had been altered? A group studying chicken bones also faced a similar conundrum of figuring out if anything had changed due to the physics of space.

“We learned how hard it was to write a research proposal and conduct an experiment. We came in during lunchtime to work for two weeks,” student Lily Kihanya said.

Over several voluntary lunchtime and after-school sessions, the students problem-solved. The chicken bone group established a control cube that would stay on Earth and give them a basis for comparison, while the magnets group fashioned a thin square that was wedged between the two magnets and would fall if the magnets disconnected.

While she learned a lot about planning and the scientific process, student Melia Laird said the most important lessons she learned were about communication and teamwork.

McClure was hoping at least one of the 17 proposals the students submitted would be accepted. In the end, four were selected. The proposals questioned what effect space travel would have on magnets, chicken bones, the cell structures of different types of grasses and batteries.

Once all of the experiments have been conducted and the results analyzed, the data will be published by the International School and possibly sent to Cubes in Space and other organizations.

Though the two teams whose experiments that have returned from space have just begun examining the outcomes, they have already learned about the mysteries of space.

Space travel affected the marrow in chicken bones, but it did so more substantially when the bones were situated vertically in the cube, student Holden Shivers said. That was not at all what his team had suspected.

In addition to learning more about science firsthand, students also got the added bonus of bragging rights.

“Knowing that our cube was going to be sent to NASA was pretty cool,” said Alli Follett.