National Spaced Out Sports Design Challenge – Deadline March 16, 2012

Students in grades 5-8 can compete to create a game for the International Space Station astronauts to play in space.

Students in grades 5-8 throughout the United States are invited to participate in Spaced Out Sports, a national design challenge that applies Newton’s Laws of Motion by designing a game for the International Space Station astronauts to play in space. The goal is for students to learn the science behind the game on Earth and in microgravity.

Students will submit game demonstrations via a playbook and video. Submissions will be accepted from schools, home school groups, after-school or enrichment programs. Awards include: First Place — NASA school-wide or program-wide celebration (U.S. teams only); top three teams — games played on the space station and recorded for a future broadcast; all contributing schools and programs — opportunity to participate in a Digital Learning Network webcast with astronauts on the space station.

Entries are due March 16, 2012.

Spaced Out Sports student and educator resources include posters, bookmarks, curriculum guides, career videos and Digital Learning Network modules. All include NASA astronauts, engineers and celebrity sports figures engaging students in relevant space-sports connections by explaining and demonstrating the science behind their work and/or games. Featured are: former astronaut and NASA Associate Administrator for Education Leland Melvin and astronaut Nicole Stott; Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin; NASCAR’s Juan Pablo Montoya; basketball’s Temeka Johnson; football/Super Bowl champions New Orleans Saints; and hockey’s Ryan O’Reilly and the Colorado Avalanche.

Spaced Out Sports is managed by NASA’s Stennis Space Center Education through the Teaching From Space Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston.

For more information and to register for the challenge, visit
http://education.ssc.nasa.gov/spacedoutsports