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Unique NASA Partnerships Spark STEM Learning on Global Scale


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Unique NASA Partnerships Spark STEM Learning on Global Scale

NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, holding the book 'Goodnight Moon' in his left hand and a microphone in his right hand, reads aloud aboard the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn reading “Goodnight Moon” aboard station for Crayola’s “Read Along, Draw Along”
Credits: NASA

NASA offers a world of experiences and opportunities to engage young explorers around the globe in the excitement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement collaborates with experts throughout the agency, the U.S. government, and a variety of global partners to spark inspiration in Artemis Generation students everywhere.

Partnerships with the agency reach new audiences. Here are some of the ways NASA and its partners are making exciting STEM learning resources and opportunities available globally.

  • NASA and Minecraft collaborated to bring NASA missions to life.
  • NASA and Crayola partnered on a series of virtual engagements to encourage students and families to participate in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) content – for example, the annual Crayola Creativity Week.
  • NASA partnered with LEGO Education on educational resources to introduce STEAM concepts and careers with students, teachers, and families.
  • NASA joined forces with Discovery Education to provide curriculum support resources, videos, and events through their online platform.
  • NASA recently signed an agreement with Arizona State University’s Milo Space Science Institute to create new opportunities for students to engage in STEM workforce development through 12-week academies using NASA data sets, information from NASA subject matter experts as well as information on the agency’s missions and careers. 
  • NASA partnered with Code.org on the development of computer science and coding resources for teachers and students.
  • NASA collaborated with LabXchange to develop free online resources for teachers and students on topics such as solar eclipses, Mars, astrobiology, and Artemis missions, with more than 700 resources available to date.
lego_figures_service_module_small-1.jpg?
Representative LEGO minifigures in front of European Service Module that will power the Orion spacecraft on Artemis II. Four LEGO minifigures will fly on Artemis I as part of the official flight kit, which carries mementos for educational outreach and posterity.
Credit: NASA/Radislav Sinyak

There’s More to Explore With NASA

International educators and students can find even more ways to engage with NASA’s missions and content through these resources, available online to all.

  • For the youngest explorers, NASA Kids Club offers STEM-based games for students ages 3-9.
  • The agency’s Artemis Camp Experience features hands-on activities designed to introduce K-12 students to the systems that will enable NASA astronauts to return to the Moon with Artemis.
  • NASA’s “First Woman” graphic novel series tells the fictional story of Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to explore the Moon. Created for students in grades 5-12, “First Woman” includes graphic novels in English and Spanish along with accompanying videos, activities, and more.
  • Through the agency’s internship opportunities, students gain authentic experience while being part of the agency’s work.
  • Student challenges available internationally include the Human Exploration Rover Challenge, in which student teams create and test human-powered rovers, and the Space Apps Challenge, a hackathon that aims to solve real-world challenges on Earth and in space.
  • NASA’s ASTRO CAMP Community Partners Program shares NASA STEM content and experiences through youth organizations and informal learning institutions such as museums and libraries, including nearly 30 international partner sites.
  • Citizen scientists anywhere can contribute their local observations through the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer app, part of the GLOBE program sponsored by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, and Youth Learning as Citizen Environmental Scientists.
  • Look up! Use the Spot the Station mobile app and website to know when the International Space Station will pass overhead.
  • NASA is much more than astronauts and rocket scientists. The Surprisingly STEM video series highlights unexpected careers with linked hands-on activities.
  • STEM resources for educators and students can be found anytime on NASA’s Learning Resources website.
  • The agency offers video on demand through NASA+ with unique STEM programming, live coverage of NASA missions, and more.
Two people on a rover challenge vehicle with a Start banner hanging above
Students put their human-powered rover to the test in NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge.
Credit: NASA

Get NASA STEM Updates via Email

NASA STEM’s e-newsletters deliver the latest updates to email inboxes around the world. The NASA EXPRESS weekly e-newsletter offers the latest NASA STEM content and opportunities, while the monthly Earthrise e-newsletter offers themed resources to elevate Earth and climate science in the classroom.

Learn more about how NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement is inspiring Artemis Generation explorers at: https://www.nasa.gov/stem

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Last Updated
Oct 02, 2024

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      Technicians install the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) K-Rad Cube within the Orion stage adapter inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. The K-Rad Cube, about the size of a shoebox, is one of the CubeSats slated to fly on NASA’s Artemis II test flight in 2026. Credit: NASA Four international space agencies have signed agreements to send CubeSats into space aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, each with their own objectives. All will be released from an adapter on the SLS upper stage into a high-Earth orbit, where they will conduct an orbital maneuver to reach their desired orbit.

      ATENEA – Argentina’s Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales will collect data on radiation doses across various shielding methods, measure the radiation spectrum around Earth, collect GPS data to help optimize future mission design, and validate a long-range communications link.
      K-Rad Cube – The Korea Aerospace Administration will use a dosimeter made of material designed to mimic human tissue to measure space radiation and assess biological effects at various altitudes across the Van Allen radiation belt.
      Space Weather CubeSat – The Saudi Space Agency will measure aspects of space weather, including radiation, solar X-rays, solar energetic particles, and magnetic fields, at a range of distances from Earth.
      TACHELES – The Germany Space Agency DLR will collect measurements on the effects of the space environment on electrical components to inform technologies for lunar vehicles.
      Together, these research areas will inform plans for future missions within NASA’s Artemis campaign. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
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      Uruguay’s Paso Severino Reservoir, the primary water source for Montevideo, on June 13, 2023, captured by Landsat 9. Credits:
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      At the workshop, researchers from NASA introduced participants to methods for measuring water resources from space. NASA’s Applied Remote Sensing (ARSET) program also provided a primer on remote sensing principles.
      DINAGUA team supervisor Jose Rodolfo Valles León asks a question during a 2022 workshop in Buenos Aires. Other members of the Uruguay delegation — Florencia Hastings, Vanessa Erasun Rodríguez de Líma, Vanessa Ferreira, and Teresa Sastre (current Director of DINAGUA) — sit in the row behind. Organization of American States “NASA doesn’t just deliver data,” said John Bolten, NASA’s lead scientist for ISAT and chief of the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We collaborate with our partners and local experts to translate the data into information that is useful, usable, and relevant. That kind of coordination is what makes NASA’s water programs so effective on the ground, at home and around the world.”
      The DINAGUA team brought ideas and provided guidelines to Pohren for a tool that applies Landsat and Sentinel satellite imagery to detect changes in Uruguay’s reservoirs. Landsat, a joint NASA-U.S. Geological Survey mission, provides decades of satellite imagery to track changes in land and water. The Sentinel missions, a part of the European Commission managed Copernicus Earth Observation program and operated by ESA (the European Space Agency), provide complementary visible, infrared, and microwave imagery for surface water assessments.
      From a young age, Pohren was familiar with water-related challenges, as floods repeatedly inundated his relatives’ homes in his hometown of Montenegro, Brazil. It was extra motivation for him as he scoured ARSET tutorials and taught himself to write computer code. The result was a monitoring tool capable of estimating the surface area of Uruguay’s reservoirs over time.
      A screenshot of the reservoir monitoring tool shows the Paso Severino’s surface water coverage alongside time-series data tracking its variations. Tiago Pohren The tool draws on several techniques to differentiate the surface water extent of reservoirs. These techniques include three optical indicators derived from the Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellites:
      Normalized Difference Water Index, which highlights water by comparing how much green and near-infrared light is reflected. Water absorbs infrared light, so it stands out clearly from land. Modified Normalized Difference Water Index, which swaps near-infrared with shortwave infrared to improve the contrast and reduce errors when differentiating between water and built-up or vegetated areas. Automated Water Extraction Index, which combines four types of reflected light — green, near-infrared, and two shortwave infrared bands — to help separate water from shadows and other dark features. From Emergency Tool to Everyday Asset
      In 2023, the DINAGUA team used Pohren’s tool to examine reservoirs located upstream from Montevideo’s drinking water intake. But the data told a tough story.
      “There was water available in other reservoirs, but it was a very small amount compared to the water demand of the Montevideo metropolitan region,” Pohren said. Simulations showed that even if all of the water were released, most of it would not reach the water intake for Montevideo or the Paso Severino reservoir.
      Despite this news, the analysis prevented actions that might have wasted important resources for maintaining productive activities in the upper basin, Pohren said. Then, in August 2023, rain began to refill Uruguay’s reservoirs, allowing the country to declare an end to the water crisis.
      From right to left: Tiago Pohren, Vanessa Erasun, and Florencia Hastings at the second ISAT workshop in March 2024. Organization of American States Though the immediate water crisis has passed, the tool Pohren created will be useful in the future in Uruguay and around the world. During an ISAT workshop in 2024, he shared his tool with international water resources managers with the hope it could aid their own drought response efforts. And DINAGUA officials still use it to identify and monitor dams, irrigation reservoirs, and other water bodies in Uruguay.
      Pohren continues to use NASA training and data to advance reservoir management. He’s currently exploring an ARSET training on how the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will further improve the system by allowing DINAGUA to directly measure the height of water in reservoirs. He is also following NASA’s new joint mission with ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organization) called NISAR, which launched on July 30. The NISAR satellite will provide radar data that detects changes in water extent, regardless of cloud cover or time of day. “If a drought happens again,” Pohren said, “with the tools that we have now, we will be much more prepared to understand what the conditions of the basin are and then make predictions.”
      Environmental engineer Tiago Pohren conducts a field inspection on the Canelón Grande reservoir, the second-largest reservoir serving Montevideo, during the drought. Tiago Pohren By Melody Pederson, Rachel Jiang
      The authors would like to thank Noelia Gonzalez, Perry Oddo, Denise Hill, and Delfina Iervolino for interview support as well as Jerry Weigel for connecting with Tiago about the tool’s development.
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