Competition offers students the chance to participate in a real-life NASA expedition in the USA

Deadline for entry - midnight 24 May 2010

This competition is being run by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) as part of their education programme and will offer two students the chance to take part in an official research trip to NASA and the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA.

The expedition aims to discover what kinds of life exist at the extreme edge of the Earth's atmosphere and will involve the launch of a small measuring robot 40 kilometres into the stratosphere on a powerful rocket. And your students have the opportunity to be there!

How to enter

Before the launch of the robot, the team need to take a base-level reading of how many microbes exist at ground-level. The robot cannot be used for this test as it will be contaminated with earth microbes which will alter the final results. The scientists are therefore challenging students to come up with a method for detecting the number of microbes in the atmosphere at the launch site.

The students should describe, in 300 words, how their experiment might work, how they would measure the volume of air the microbes came from, and how they would detect and collect the microbes. They should include the chemical, biological, mathematical or physical principles involved and any appropriate diagrams.

Scientists judging the entries would also like to hear why each entrant should be picked to join the team. Students can tackle this either by submitting a 300 word essay, or six PowerPoint slides, or three minutes of audio or video footage. Entrants must be aged 17 or above and be able to impress with an innovative and creative response to the challenge.

Competition details

Full competition and prize details and the official entry forms can be found on the NESTA website.

UK-ESERO

Enthusiastic about teaching space education? Then you might like to know about the upcoming launch of UK-ESERO at the National STEM Centre. UK-ESERO will provide a one-stop shop for space educators, with a comprehensive website offering news stories, inspiring resources and details about space events throughout the UK. We have also recruited a regional network of space champions who schools can contact for information, training, visits and guidance. Furthermore, we will be uploading a large number of space education resources to our fully searchable eLibrary to assist teachers in curriculum development and lesson planning.

So...watch this space.