Thousands of students participate in NASA’s search for ‘STEMnauts’

Virtual scavenger hunt with Texas Instruments a win-win for students and STEM
 
Following six weeks of increasingly difficult online challenges, a winner has been announced in the first-ever Search for STEMnauts virtual scavenger hunt. More than 1,000 student teams participated, with numerous teams closely vying for first place. In the end, five students from Sylvania Northview High School in Sylvania, Ohio, won the competition.
 
“When I find a competition like this that pushes upper-end students, they’re engaged in it, I’m engaged in it, and I think that sets it apart from normal classroom teaching,” said John Eckhart, AP Calculus teacher at Sylvania Northview High School.
 
Earlier this spring, NASA and Texas Instruments (TI) launched The Search for STEMnauts to ignite students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Students in sixth through 12th grade were challenged to solve NASA-related puzzles for a chance to unlock virtual reward points. The student team with the most points at the end of the challenge, Sylvania Northview High School, won an out-of-this-world prize pack, including a TI graphing calculator and a live video chat with a NASA astronaut.
 
“The Search for STEMnauts engaged students in NASA’s mission with a chance to develop critical coding skills that may attract more students into STEM disciplines,” said Bob Musgrove, director of Education at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
 
The weekly challenges ranged in difficulty from beginner to advanced and introduced students to the coding and problem-solving skills NASA employees, including astronauts, use in their jobs every day. From cracking a code using TI’s basic programming language to calculating the travel time between Earth and Mars, students put their STEM skills to the test.
 
“We added a high-tech, interactive twist to the traditional scavenger hunt to appeal to all students,” said Peter Balyta, Ph.D, president of TI Education Technology. “By making a game out of learning important skills, like coding and problem solving, we can help foster a lifelong love of STEM and open students up to a variety of exciting career opportunities.”
 
In addition to the challenges, the program also included weekly virtual interactive events from NASA. They ranged from live-streamed Distance Learning events from NASA specialists to Facebook Live events from the inside of a prototype rover on a simulated Martian terrain to a SnapChat story featuring NASA’s unique aircraft operations. The virtual events were recorded and can be viewed here. 
 
The official competition ended May 31, but the Search for STEMnauts challenge will remain online for students and youth groups to use throughout the summer and beyond.
 
“We absolutely want to make this available for young people to be able to participate in outside the school year,” said Becky Kamas, STEM on Station activity manager with Johnson Space Center’s Office of Education. “It is a great way to keep kids engaged, excited and challenged during the summer months, and it’s a great way to share the excitement of the human spaceflight program. It allows kids to see how problem-solving skills are needed in all types of environments and disciplines—even space!”
 
For more information, visit www.STEMnauts.com


As part of their prize for winning, Sylvania Northview High School students were able to have a live Skype connection on June 21 with astronaut Kjell Lindgren while he was undersea participating in NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations. Image courtesy of Sylvania Northview High School.