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Youtube and Lenovo, the computer manufacturer, announced on Monday a science contest called SpaceLab for students around the world aged 14 to 18, and it is not quite like any other science contest．For one, the students do not actually have to perform any experiments．Instead, they will make videos to express ideas for experiments that could be conducted in the zero-gravity environments of the space station．
The two winning entries(参赛作品)will be built and flown there, and astronauts will conduct a demonstration that will be broadcast to classroom via YouTube．
These will not be the first student experiments to get to the space station．Students at 12 school districts around the country are currently writing proposals for experiments to fly there next spring, part of a program run by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education(NCESSE)in Capitol Heights, Maryland．“It's changing the way kids are looking at science,” said Jeff Goldstein, the center's director．Earlier this year, 27 student experiments, out of 1,027 proposals, flew on two space shuttle flights．
For the YouTube contest, NASA has signed an agreement with Space Adventures, a company in Vienna, Virginia, which is best known for arranging trips by space tourists to the space station．Space Adventures will act as a middleman to prepare the winning experiments for flight．
Restrictions for experiment proposals include no dangerous animals, no explosions and nothing sharp．Entries will be selected and the finalists(参加决赛的选手)will be distributed among three geographical regions．For each region, there will be 10 finalists in the 14-16-year-old category and 10 in the 17-18-year-old category．
A popular vote among YouTube visitors will provide a quarter of the final score．Also judging the finalists will be a group of experts including Stephen W．Hawking．
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