Clemson-NASA Asteroid Challenge
February 22, 2012
An Online Contest For Middle School Students That Promotes Academic Enrichment
CLEMSON, SC – February 22, 2012 – Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to design a mission to an asteroid.
Sound like an old episode of Mission Impossible? Not quite. It’s the Clemson-NASA Asteroid Challenge! This February, NASA, Clemson University, and other members of the NASA Human Health and Performance Center are challenging students in the 6th through 8th grades to dream of going where no one has gone before.
This contest is open to teams of 1-4 students who will submit a slide show presentation to NASA that outlines their plan of action for sending a crew into outer space in order to get a close up encounter with an asteroid. The hopes of this contest are to engage students in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and to provide them with a stimulating opportunity to explore and discover a world outside of their own. This contest will challenge students to tap into their skills, intellect, and creativity as a means of designing and strategizing a voyage to an asteroid.
Select winners of the challenge, who have displayed exemplary workmanship and creativity, will have the opportunity to have their presentation highlighted on the NASA website.
A Creative Inquiry Team made up of Clemson University students is working with Dr. Benjamin Stephens, a psychology professor at the university, to design the challenge. They are also responsible for judging the submissions and evaluating the finished projects. Complete guidelines and instructions for submitting an entry can be found on the website (www.clemson.edu/psych/ugrad/nasa-challenge/). The competition officially opens on February 20, and closes on March 30, 2012.
If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Dr. Stephens, please call Dr. Stephens at 864.656.4982 or e-mail him at [email protected]
