Firefly becomes Indiana's official insect!
Fireflies DO glow in space!
We did it!!! Our (Zero-Gravity Glow Experiment) ZGGE firefly spaceflight experiment with Purdue launched from West Texas on Tuesday, December 12th. It was a success!!!! Not bad for second graders!
Maggie Samudio
Gr. 2 Cumberland Elementary School
West Lafayette, IN
Watch videos here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PurdueEngineers/status/941738578048114688
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcu5Qvxn3sn
(For more information on this incredible journey, click here!)
IPE is so proud of Maggie and all of her work and effort in giving her students an amazing lifetime experience! IPE Teachers are the BEST!

Updates on Firefly...
Maggie Samudio, 2nd grade teacher at Cumberland Elementary School in West Lafayette is an incredible teacher, directing her students through the myriad of government bureaucracy to have Say's firefly (pyractomen angulata) declared Indiana's state insect.
Her amazing students (led by Kayla) 2 years ago set out on a mission to petition the General Assembly to name an insect for Indiana. Indiana was only one of three states in the union without a designated state insect.
The bill did not pass out of committee in 2016. They were re-introduced to the 2017 General Assembly: House Bill 1034, House Bill 1109 and Senate Bill 165. Again, it stalemated. In 2017, Senate Bill 236 was successful and Pyractomena angulata or Say's Firefly is now the official insect of the State of Indiana!
Visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/firefly2016 to learn about their journey
OR
Wow! Grade School Experiment goes into space
Can a firefly light up in space?