NASA Selects Informal Learning Institutions to Engage Next Generation

NASA’s Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) program has selected four informal education organizations to promote STEM learning and help inspire the next generation of explorers.

The projects provide students the opportunity to engage in NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach through science, technology, engineering, and math, and aim to reach populations that are historically underrepresented in STEM professions.

Approximately $3.5 million in total will be awarded through cooperative agreements, which provide more opportunities for interaction between recipients and NASA than the grants previously awarded through TEAM II.

The selected institutions and their projects are:

Bell Museum of Natural History and Planetarium, Minneapolis

A Charge Forward: Activating the Nation’s Planetariums to Excite the Public about Human Space Exploration of the Moon and Beyond

Bell Museum of Natural History will provide a planetarium show and activity kit on long-duration spaceflight with the goal of reaching the hearing-impaired community and participants with disabilities. The show and activity kit will also highlight careers of such employees within NASA.

Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh

Blueprints to Blast Off: Making Our Way to the Moon to Mars

Carnegie Institute will create dynamic programs for schools and museums where participants can act as team members of NASA’s Artemis program by creating solutions to problems encountered in an imaginary space journey to the Moon.

EcoExploratorio, Museo de Ciencias de Puerto Rico, San Juan

Innovative Space Learning Activities (ISLA) Center

EcoExploratorio will provide STEM experiences around NASA’s Moon to Mars content to schools and community centers across Puerto Rico including a NASA Summer Exhibition and STEM Interactive Learning Center at Plaza Las Americas, the largest shopping center in the Caribbean.

Science Museum of Minnesota, Saint Paul

Build a Mars Habitat – Survive and Thrive…

The Science Museum of Minnesota will provide a museum exhibit for visitors to construct their own imaginary habitat for successful living on Mars.

For more information on TEAM II, visit: https://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/CP4SMP.