New NASA-funded program to train K-12 students in STEM fields

Outreach  components  include  public lectures, parent nights, and telescope viewing opportunities

Iqbal Pittalwala

NASA has awarded the University of California, Riverside a grant of $320,000 to launch a research and training program in STEM fields aimed at enhancing K-12 students’ experiences outside school hours.

Titled “Launch Pad from High School to NASA: A Research and Training Program in STEM Fields,” the program has received funding for two years. Its goal is to advance STEM education at high schools and beyond by developing a workforce pipeline and working collaboratively with other agencies and universities to train students and teachers in disciplines of interest to NASA.

“There is a shortage of STEM-literate individuals in today’s workforce, which we need to train,” said Bahram Mobasher, the project’s principal investigator and a professor of physics and observational astronomy at UCR. “By immersing high school students from an early age in state-of-the-art science and technology, we hope to show them the road to discovery and the excitement of finding something new. They need to know that the sky is not the limit, but the beginning.”

For more information, please visit: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2019/04/08/new-nasa-funded-program-train-k-12-students-stem-fields