NASA’s Engineering Design Challenge

Educators from kindergarten through high school are invited by NASA and the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) to participate in the NASA Engineering Design Challenge for Fall 2007. During the school year, students will design, build, and assess plant growth chambers in a standards-based, grade-banded activity for elementary, middle, and high schools. Students will learn the basics of engineering and design, as well as how to conduct a scientific experiment.

There are three challenge tracks:

1. Design, build, and assess your own unique space plant growth chamber.

2. Build and assess your own growth chamber.

3. Assess a pre-built growth chamber.

Participating classrooms will receive space-exposed seeds to use along with other Earth seeds to actually test the design of the growth chambers they built or bought. This approach allows students to construct multi-layered experiments to assess both their growth chamber’s functionality and space-seed vs. Earth-seed performance.

The National Science Teachers Association (NTSA) is developing online teaching resources (SciGuides) that are related to the Engineering Design Challenge. And the International Technical Educators Association (ITEA) is offering standards-based curricular units for all grade levels.

Preflight Interview With Barbara Morgan
Have Your Own Space Garden

Future Adventures?

The Park Seed Company is proud to be part of the United States’ exploration of space, and we are especially pleased to support educators around the country in making science attractive and compelling for their students. Although no additional Seeds in Space projects are on the drawing board right now, you can bet that if another opportunity pops up, Park Seed Company will rise to the occasion!