Find a dark location and look up this weekend to see the best meteor shower of the year. The Perseid meteor shower peaks on Saturday, Aug. 12. This year, a waxing crescent Moon will make it possible to spot even faint meteors. | | Educator Professional Development | | Audience: K-12 and informal educators Event Date: Tuesday, Aug. 15, at noon EDT This fall, a convergence of NASA science and exploration missions provide an opportunity to spark excitement about asteroids. On Sept. 24, OSIRIS-REx will return rocks and dust collected from an asteroid. Later this fall, Psyche will launch on a mission to explore a metal-rich asteroid. And on Nov. 1, the Lucy mission will have its first significant asteroid encounter. In this session, participants will explore the science and technology behind these missions, what we hope to learn from them, and plans for public and student engagement.
| | Audience: K-12 educators Event Date: Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. EDT The Psyche mission is set to launch in October on a journey to explore a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The mission will also test a new laser communication technology that encodes data in photons at near-infrared wavelengths.
In this session, participants will get an overview of the science behind the mission and explore related education materials and opportunities to use in the classroom. | | Audience: All educators and community organizations Event Date: Thursday, Aug. 17, at 5 p.m. EDT Additionally, as an educator, you can use the Moon Tree STEM Tool Kit to create interactive lessons around your Moon Tree or implement activities into your own STEM curriculum. | | NASA is seeking proposals for the 2023 NASA TEAM II Community Anchor Awards and Full Awards. Eligible proposers include U.S. nonprofit science museums, planetariums, youth-serving organizations, and libraries.
Selected parties will offer inquiry- or experiential-based opportunities that include NASA education and research and directly align with space exploration, aeronautics, space science, Earth science, or microgravity. Click here for the full announcement.
| | Are You Up for a Challenge? | | Audience: Educators and students in grades 9-12 and higher education Proposal Deadline: Sept. 21 NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) is accepting proposals for its 2024 competition – its 30th competition year! Student teams are challenged to design, build, test, and compete with a human-powered rover capable of traversing challenging terrains and a specialty tool for completing simulated Artemis mission tasks. Teams earn points by presenting designs and documentation to expert panels, engaging with other students in STEM education, and successfully completing course obstacles and mission tasks at the in-person culminating event. The challenge will be held April 19-20, 2024, in Huntsville, Alabama. | | Audience: Multidisciplinary student teams enrolled at HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions Fall 2023 Submission Deadline: Oct.16 The NASA Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition (MITTIC) invites students of all majors to bring their ideas for innovative uses of NASA technology. Teams choose any NASA intellectual property as the basis of their concept and submit proposals using MITTIC challenge guidelines. Top teams are invited to pitch their ideas in the Space Tank as part of a three-day on-site experience at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Space Tank winners will receive $20,000 for first place and $10,000 for second place. The top team will receive a VIP trip to the NASA Ames Experience in Silicon Valley, California. | | More Resources to Explore | | Audience: Weather and satellite enthusiasts of all ages The newest app from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA takes users on an interactive journey to learn about weather-monitoring satellites. Using immersive Augmented Reality (AR), users are challenged to complete a series of missions, starting with an interactive journey into space to see the satellites orbiting Earth. View the satellites’ instruments up close to see how they work and transmit data from space to a system of ground stations on Earth. Then end with a personalized weather forecast. Available now for download to mobile devices. | | Audience: Science enthusiasts of all ages NASA’s new volunteer science project lets you help researchers learn about the Moon’s dynamic surface.
Orbiting spacecraft have taken photographs of the lunar surface since the 1960s. MoonDiff tasks users with comparing images of the same lunar surface location from two different missions to look for changes.
Participants might spot new craters, landslides, spacecraft impacts, and more. | | Opportunities With Our Partners | | Submission Deadline: 6 p.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 25 | | Application Deadline: Oct. 22 | | |
Are you looking for NASA STEM materials to support your curriculum?
Find NASA science resources for your classroom. NASA Wavelength is a digital collection of Earth and space science resources for educators of all levels — from elementary to college, to out-of-school programs. https://science.nasa.gov/learners/wavelength
Check out the ‘Explore NASA Science’ website! Science starts with questions, leading to discoveries. Visit science.nasa.gov. To view the site in Spanish, visit ciencia.nasa.gov. | | Visit NASA STEM Engagement on the Web: | | | | | | |
