This week in STEM news, Education World takes a look at how NASA is helping K-12 kids all over the country get into STEM.

NASA 'Breaks STEM Gender Barrier"

As an institution, NASA not only helps students across the country find passion in STEM, but has in general helped women get in and stay in STEM fields.

"The notorious lack of women in leadership roles in STEM seems to run rampant everywhere—everywhere except NASA, an administration that not only puts women at the helm, but continually gives them a platform to drive the larger conversation around the need for more women in the sciences," said FastCompany.com.

NASA Teaches Educators

In Georgia earlier this month, NASA experts teamed up with eight Georgia educators to provide activities to take back to their K-12 classrooms when instructing STEM.

The partnership is part of a NASA goal to provide workshops to educators so they can in turn peak their students' interest in STEM.

Read more here. 

NASA Promotes STEM Competitions

NASA is frequently hosting competitions for students nationwide to participate in to showcase their STEM talents and see other passionate students in various STEM fields.

Most recently, a NASA engineering competition featured 70 different schools competing nationwide.

"Participants chose one of six engineering design challenges and worked on them for eight weeks. [The winner], Pontiac Middle School... designed a game for astronauts to play in space and gave a virtual presentation about its solution to representatives of NASA and the U.S. Department of Education," said the Oakland Press.

Read more here. 

For the past two years, NASA officials have also teamed up with the Department of Education to invite students nationwide to participate in a STEM Challenge, where the winners present their findings to the NASA panel.

This year, the winner was Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Roanoke, V.A.

"Stonewall Jackson’s team — called the Lunar Suenos, or 'dreams of the moon' — was tasked with creating a lunar plant growth chamber that could grow vegetables for astronauts stationed on the moon," said Roanoke.com. 

If you and your students have participated in NASA sponsored STEM events, please share with us below.

Compiled by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/23/2015