Jason Project Adds Sense of Adventure To Learning Science

By Andrew Trotter

Houston

"I feel stu-u-upid," says Jenna Baker, grinning while holding around her waist the oversized white pants of a NASA spacesuit.

The pants, held up by red suspenders, make the Indiana 9th grader look more like a clown than an astronaut. But she's here at the Johnson Space Center with a serious purpose: trying to solve scientific problems with some of the space agency's top scientists, and, in just a few minutes, making the experience come alive for hundreds of thousands of other students who will be watching her across the country via satellite and the World Wide Web.

Ms. Baker, 15, and 27 other teenagers, as well as eight teachers, were lucky enough to be selected for this year's expedition of the Jason Project, the best-known and most sophisticated of a growing number of "virtual field...