NASA’s Awards Summer of Innovation Granst for Education Programs

To help stimulate education, this week NASA’s Office of Education will be giving over 200 organizations what they call Summer of Innovation (SoI) mini-grants with a value of up to $2,500. The grants are part of NASA’s education network with the aim of engaging and motivating middle school students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) activities throughout the summer break and beyond.

The recipients of the SoI grants have been selected by the space agency. Those selected are from among over 500 proposals submitted to NASA after a request from the agency for organizations in working jointly with them to infuse NASA-themed STEM content into existing summer and after school programs for middle school students.

The awards are being given to a wide range of organizations covering a number is diverse programs. Among the selected organizations are non-profit educational organizations, public and private schools, youth foundations and science centers. Winning proposals include after school STEM programs, simulated aviation training, robotics and ways to make food suitable for space travel.

NASA expects as many as 20,000 students and 3,400 educators to benefit from the SoI grant summer educational activities. A complete list of the organizations selected to receive SoI mini-grants is available at: http://go.nasa.gov/SFkauq

For more information on NASA’s Summer of Innovation project, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/soi