NASA is to award millions of dollars of funding to museum projects across the US that encourage student participation in STEM subjects
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 31 Mar 2023
The funding will help museums and science centres launch projects that engage their communities in STEM Credit: NASA
NASA is to award millions of dollars of funding to 21 institutions, including museums and science centres, across the US for projects that encourage student participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The funding forms part of NASA’s Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) programme and its TEAM II Community Anchor Awards. Both of which are funded by NASA’s Next Generation STEM (Next Gen STEM) initiative, which aims to engage the ‘Artemis’ generation – a name used in reference to NASA's Artemis programme, which aims to send the first woman and the first person of colour to the moon by 2025 – in a variety of STEM topics including aeronautics, Earth science and human space exploration.
Four institutions have been selected to receive around US$3.2m (€2.94m, £2.58m) in cooperative agreements for projects to be implemented over the next three years. Among these are the Michigan Science Center in Detroit for its project ‘Urban Skies – Equitable Universe: Using Open Space to Empower Youth to Explore Their Solar System and Beyond’, and the Museum of Science in Boston for ‘UNITED (Unveiling NASA’s Inspirational Tales of Exploration and Discovery)’.
In addition, the agency has designated 17 institutions as Community Anchors, local education hubs that engage underserved areas in STEM and help build community connections to NASA. These institutions, which include the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis the New York Hall of Science and the Scienceworks Hands-On Museum in Oregon, will each receive more than US $660,000 (€605,590, £533,000) in grants to help make their projects a reality.
“NASA’s vision for TEAM II is to enhance the capability of informal education institutions to host NASA-based learning activities while increasing the institutions’ capacity to use innovative tools and platforms to bring NASA resources to students,” said a NASA statement.
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