We are fortunate to be living in the "Second Golden Era" of space exploration and excitement about space is growing faster than a Saturn V rocket! The recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the search for Earth-like exoplanets, the growth of space tourism and (soon!) sending astronauts to the moon are achievements we can all be excited about. What better way to get involved in space programs than through NASA contests for students?
NASA Contests And Competitions For Kids
So today, we'll share some fun contests and competitions that will challenge your space skills and creativity and prepare you for future space adventures. Good luck and have fun!
If your child loves NASA, enroll them in a live online NASA STEM class, designed by experts from Google and MIT.
1. Engineering Design Challenges
NASA Glenn Engineering Design Challenges are for grade 6-8 students. Facilitators can modify challenges to fit the needs of their students or learning environment. These challenges are open for anyone to use at any time, however the NASA Glenn Office of STEM engagement occasionally offers solicitations to provide funding for facilitating a selected challenge during a specific window of time such as a summer or a school year. Here are a few examples:
Keep It Cool
Using the engineering design process, students will design, test, and improve systems to maintain cold temperatures within a simulated cryogenic propellant tank. They will test their design against a control to see how well their insulators worked, then make improvements on their design to determine which are most effective at preventing ice melt in their simulated cryogenic tank. There is no deadline to enter. For more information contact: Gerald.W.Voltz@nasa.gov.
Powered and Pumped Up
Using the engineering design process, students will design, build, and improve a stand-alone solar powered pumping system to move water as quickly as possible between two containers. Students will use light-concentrating materials, shapes, and structures to maximize the collection of simulated solar energy. The energy will then be directed toward a solar cell that will power the system to move the water. There is no deadline to enter.For more information contact: Gerald.W.Voltz@nasa.gov.
2. Student Launch – Artemis Student Challenges
Launch is a 9-month long challenge that tasks student teams from across the U.S. to design, build, test, and launch a high-powered rocket carrying a scientific or engineering payload. It's open to teams from U.S. colleges and universities, high schools and middle schools. Teams complete a series of design reviews that mirror the NASA engineering design life cycle. Teams must successfully complete a Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, Flight Readiness Review and Launch Readiness Review, which include safety briefings, analyses of vehicle and payload systems and flight test data.
This challenge runs Apr. 30-May 4, 2025. Thee event is hosted at the NASA Launch Complex in Huntsville, Alabama. You'll also need an adult mentor as a team member throughout the project. For more details contact: Fred.Kepner@nasa.gov.
3. NASA International Space Apps Challenge (Space Apps)
The NASA International Space Apps Challenge (Space Apps) is an international hackathon for coders, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, technologists, and others in cities around the world, where teams engage (NASA’s) free and open data to address real-world problems on Earth and in space. Better yet, this challenge is open to all ages.
For one weekend each October, participants from around the world come together over a 48-hour period to solve challenges submitted by NASA personnel. After the hackathon, project submissions are judged by space agency experts and winners are selected for one of 10 Global Awards. For more information contact: info@spaceappschallenge.org. It's scheduled for October 5-6, 2024.
4. Breakthrough Junior Challenge
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is an annual global competition for students to inspire creative thinking about science. Students ages 13 to 18 from countries across the globe are invited to create and submit original videos (3:00 minutes in length maximum) that bring to life a concept or theory in the life sciences, physics or mathematics. The submissions are judged on the student’s ability to communicate complex scientific ideas in engaging, illuminating, and imaginative ways. Submissions will be accepted through Tuesday, June 25, 2024. The contest will award a total of $400,000 for the winning entry, including $250,000 in educational prizes for the student winner, $50,000 for their inspirational teacher, and a state-of-the art science laboratory designed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and valued at $100,000.
5. NASA App Development Challenge (ADC)
The NASA App Development Challenge (ADC) is a coding challenge for middle and high school students. By responding to the ADC, students take a part directly in the Artemis Generation endeavors to land American astronauts, including the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. In this year’s challenge, teams of middle school or high school teams have 10 weeks to create a video showcasing their application visualizing the flight path of Artemis II, while indicating which of SCaN’s antennas are available to communicate with Earth in real-time. The challenge begins on October 2, 2024, and concludes with video submission on December 11, 2024.
Discover NASA Art Contests For Students
There are also NASA art contests for kids of all ages. Explore a few fun ways to test your student's design thinking and skills.
6. NASA Space Place Art Challenge
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Space Place challenges young explorers of all ages to think about and draw a space-related situation each month. After the month is over, the team will select a few imaginative drawings to be featured on the NASA Space Place website. Visit the NASA Space Place Art Challenge page to get inspiration for this month's challenge and to learn how to submit your design! The contest is ongoing.
7. Commercial Crew 2025 Artwork Contest
NASA's Commercial Crew Program is holding its annual competition inviting kids ages 4-12 to submit artwork to be featured in their 2024 Commercial Crew Program Children's Artwork Calendar. First, second, and third place artwork will be picked from the age groups 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 per each of the four themes. The themes for this year's contest are Rockets and Spacecraft, Living and Working in Space, Exploring the Solar System, Astronauts. Entries will be judged on originality and theme. The deadline to submit artwork for this contest is October 27, 2024 at 11:59 PM CDT.
8. NASA Langley Student Art Contest
NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia is inviting students in grades K-12 to draw, paint or design their vision of what’s next in science, aeronautics, and exploration in the NASA Langley Student Art Contest. The contest is open to all children grades K-12 attending public, private, parochial and homeschools who are residents of the United States. Kids are invited to explore Earth, Flight, and Moon to Mars. The Art Contest submission period begins December 1, 2024 and concludes on December 31, 2024 at midnight EST.
Apply For A NASA Internship
If you're interested in NASA, we also wanted to mention there's a cool internship you might want to apply to, with a fast approaching deadline.
9. Summer Internship Opportunity
GeneLab for High Schools (GL4HS) is a four-week intensive training program for fifteen rising high school juniors and seniors sponsored by NASA's Ames Research Center (near Mountain View, California). GL4HS provides students an opportunity to immerse themselves in space life sciences with a specific focus on omics-based bioinformatics research, the science of collecting and analyzing complex biological data such as genetic codes, and computational biology. And the deadline for applying is coming up soon: February 7, 2023, 5pm EST. For more information contact: arc-gl4hs@mail.nasa.gov.
Enter NASA Contests For Students
From rocketry to art, space biology, and more, there are so many amazing space related activities to get involved with this year. Next, explore cool NASA space activities. Or check out even more fun STEM competitions.
Fine tune your knowledge of space exploration in private Space Careers classes for students interested in developing their own space projects, and for those preparing to apply for NASA internships. And begin learnning computer science skills that support space missions in award-winning free kids' coding classes.
Written by Bruce Callow, a Canadian space educator and co-author of the books To the Stars: Costa Rica in NASA, The Intrepids: Costa Rican Women in Science and Technology and To the Stars: Guatemala in Space. Bruce has worked as a communications consultant for former NASA astronaut Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz. He partners in a variety of space education outreach activities with NASA and the Costa Rica Institute of Technology.