NASA Essay Competition
Published on Nov 7, 2007 at 6:57 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under NASA.
This has been out for a few weeks, but I am just hearing about it. NASA has announced an essay contest for students in middle or junior high school. You can find out about it on their announcement.
Students wishing to partake of the contest must submit their entry by January 7, 2008. A notice of intent to submit is requested, but not required, by December 7, 2007. There are two possible essays (students can submit one or both), each limited to 500 words. One essay is about the everyday benefits of space technology spinoffs. The other essay is a speculative essay where students write about how they think that future spinoffs from aerospace technology will help them.  Each entry must be sponsored by a responsible adult (teacher, parent, etc).  The contest is open to students at accredited schools in grades 6 through 9.
The goal of the essay contest is to engage students to foster their interest in space exploration, and hopefully to get them to thinking about going into science and engineering fields in college. But, since it is a contest, you expect to have awards for the winners, right? Well the first prize is a $5000 college scholarship and tickets to watch a space shuttle launch. Second prize is a $2500 college scholarship, and third prize is a $1000 college scholarship. There will also be ten “regional winners” who will receive trophies. Note: there is a caveat on the essay competition web page saying that the cash awards are what NASA expects to be able to present, based upon availability of funds at the time. Also, only students who are US citizens are eligible for the cash awards.
So if anyone out there reading my blog is in middle or junior high school then you may want to enter the competition. If you know someone who would be an eligible student, then pass this information on to them. Unfortunately, though the contest is public knowledge, it has not gotten much press attention, and word is only slowly getting out about it. I am afraid that a lot of students who are really interested in aerospace technology and who could really use these scholarships won’t hear about them. I know that I seldom heard about these sorts of opportunities when I was in school until after the deadlines.
-Astroprof
Katey on March 4, 2009 at 12:25 am: 1
Any updates on the the NASA essay competition? It’s been two years..
Allow me to share this travel contest that I stumbled upon a while back. I’m not too good at puzzles but you might want to give it a try!