National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration 

NASA ADVISORY COUNCIL STEM ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE 

OFFICE OF STEM ENGAGEMENT UPDATE OCTOBER 29, 2019 

MIKE KINCAID KRIS BROWN 

ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR STEM ENGAGEMENT DEPUTY ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR STEM ENGAGEMENT 
NASA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICA’S STEM ECOSYSTEM 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memo

1. Security 

2. Leadership in Industries of 

the Future 

3. Energy and Environmental 

Leadership 

4. Health and Bioeconomic 

Innovation 

5. Space Exploration and 

Commercialization 

R&D PRIORITIES 

RIORITY 

CROSS-CUTTING ACTIONS 

NASA STEM ENGAGEMENT 

STRATEGY FOCUS AREAS 

1. Build and Leverage a Diverse, 

Highly Skilled American 

Workforce 

3. Support Transformative 

Research of High Risk and 

Potentially High Reward 

2. Create and Support Research 

Environments that Reflect 

American Values 

4. Leverage the Power of Data 

5. Build, Strengthen, and Expand 

Strategic Multisector 

Partnerships 

2. Build and Leverage a Diverse, 

Highly Skilled American 

nce, Technology, Engineering and 

3. Strengthen understanding of 

STEM by enabling powerful 

connections to NASA’s 

mission and work 

Workforce 

1. Create unique opportunities for 

students to contribute to 

NASA’s work 

*OSTP/OMB 

Scie

NASA Strategy for

Math (STEM) Engagement 

2018 – 2020 

Approved by the NASA STEM Engagement Council 

August 22, 2018 

NASA’S ALIGNMENT WITH OSTP/OMB PRIORITIES 

OSTP/OMB P
 

 

 

 

 

 

NASA MISSION DIRECTORATE

DRIVERS & REQUIREMENTS 

K-Elementary 

Graduate Undergraduate High School Middle School School

BENEFICIARIES OF NASA’S 

STEM ENGAGEMENT PORTFOLIO 

Evidence-

based 

strategies 

Rigorous 

planning 

Integrated 

operational 

model 

FOCUS AREAS 

Create unique 

opportunities for students 

to contribute to NASA’s 

work. 

Build a diverse future 

STEM workforce by 

engaging students in 

authentic learning 

experiences. 

Strengthen understanding 

of STEM by enabling 

powerful connections to 

NASA’s mission and work. 

Strategic, 

balanced 

portfolio 

NASA-unique 

learning 

experiences 

Student 

contributions to 

NASA’s work in 

action 

SCALABILITY TO MAGNIFY NASA’S REACH AND IMPACT 

ARCHITECTURE ENABLING STUDENT 

OPPORTUNITIES & CONTRIBUTIONS 
 

 

 

 

NASA Strategy for

Science, Technology, Engineering and 

Math (STEM) Engagement 

2018 – 2020 

Approved by the NASA STEM Engagement Council 

August 22, 2018 

NASA STRATEGY FOR STEM ENGAGEMENT 

FOCUS AREAS 

Create unique 

opportunities for 

students to contribute 

to NASA’s work 

OBJECTIVES 

1.1 Students contribute to NASA's endeavors in exploration and discovery. 

1.2 Research and development capacity of educational institutions is enhanced, 

enabling broad and diverse contributions that directly address NASA priorities. 

2.1 Broad and diverse set of students are attracted to STEM through NASA 

opportunities. 

2.2 Students, including underrepresented and underserved communities, explore 

and pursue STEM pathways through authentic learning experiences and 

research opportunities with NASA's people and work. 

2.3 The portfolio of NASA STEM engagement opportunities meets Agency 

workforce requirements and serves the nation’s aerospace and relevant STEM 

needs. 

2.4 Strategic partnerships with industry, academia, non-profit organizations and 

educational institutions enhance and extend the impact of NASA's efforts in 

STEM engagement. 

3.1 Youth are introduced to STEM concepts and content through readily available 

NASA STEM engagement resources and content. 

3.2 Students gain exposure to STEM careers through direct and virtual experiences 

with NASA's people and work. 

Build a diverse, skilled, 

future STEM workforce 

Strengthen 

understanding of STEM 

by enabling powerful 

connections to NASA’s 

mission 
 

 

 

NASA STEM ENGAGEMENT PORTFOLIO - DRIVERS & CONTRIBUTIONS 

Student contributions to NASA’s work in action 

Mission Goals, 

Needs 

and 

Requirements 

STEM 

Engagement 

Goals and 

Requirements 

Mission 

Activities 

Students 

STEM 

Engagement 

Activities 

NASA STEM 

Engagement 

Portfolio 

STEM 

Practitioners 

NASA・Industry・Academia 
STEM ENGAGEMENT ANNUAL PLANNING CYCLE 

Mission Goals, 

Needs 

and 

Requirements • Evidence-based drivers 

o Performance data 

o Literature/research 

data 

Portfolio 

Criteria 

1. Scope 

2. Design Principles 

3. Strategic Alignment SEC Review & 

4. Benefit Prioritization 

Sphere 1 

Sphere 2 

NASA 

STEM 

Engagement 

Portfolio 

Student contributions to 

NASA’s work in action 

STEM 

Engagement 

Goals and 

Requirements 

Internships 

Faculty & 

Challenges, Educator 

Competitions Support 

or Contests 

Institutional 

Support Fellowships 

Virtual 

Research and Learning Development Opportunities Opportunities 

STEM 

Pre-College Content / 

STEM Products 

Experiences 

College 

STEM Portfolio 

Experiences Categories 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

● ● ● ● ● 

Activity Type 

TOTAL

Beneficiaries 1. Enabling 2. Building a 3. Strengthen

Contributions Diverse Workforce Understanding 

Elem

Middle

High

Undergra

d

Grad

1.1a1.1b

1.1c

1.2a1.2b2.1a2.1b2.2a2.2b2.3a2.4a3.1a3.1b

3.1c

3.2a 

● 

Challenges, Comp. & Contests 24 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

Fellowships 4 

Internships 11 

● 

R&D Opportunities 11 

Pre-College STEM Experiences 12 ● ● ● ● 

College STEM Experiences 5 

STEM Content & Products 11 ● ● ● ● 

Virtual Learning Opportunity 0 

Institutional Support 7 ● ● ● ● ● 

Faculty & Educator Support 9 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

 

NASA STEM ENGAGEMENT PORTFOLIO SNAPSHOT 

STRATEGY ALIGNMENT AND ANALYSIS 

Total Activities: 94 8 
 

 

 

 

 

Types of Activities ARMD HEOMD SMD STMD OSTEM *Other Totals 

Internships 

Challenges, Competitions 2 & Contests 

Fellowships 1 

R&D Opportunities 

Pre-College STEM 

Experiences 

College STEM Experiences 

STEM Content & Products 5 

Virtual Learning 

Opportunity 

Institutional Support 

Faculty & Educator Support 

Total: 8 16 17 9 43 1 94 

2 5 4 

11 4 4 2 1 

1 2 

9 

7 

1 4 

1 5 

2 

3 2 

2 1 4 

2 1 6 

11 

24 

4 

11 

12 

5 

11 

7 

9 

NASA STEM ENGAGEMENT PORTFOLIO SNAPSHOT 

CONTRIBUTIONS BY ORGANIZATION 

*Note: Supported 

by Center-Based or 

other Functional 

Offices 

9 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEM ENGAGEMENT PORTFOLIO DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA 

Criteria STEM Engagement Implications 

1. Scope STEM Engagement includes all of NASA’s 

efforts to attract, engage and educate 

students and support educators and 

institutions. 

2. Design Activities must be mission-driven 

Principles authentic STEM experiences. Activities do 

not have to integrate all four design 

principles, but they should incorporate as 

many as possible. 

3. Demonstrates direct alignment and 

Alignment contributions to the NASA Strategy for 

STEM Engagement objectives and 

strategies and the NASA Strategic Plan. 

4. Benefits Has a direct or indirect benefit to students. 

10 *SEC Member Concurrence April 2019 

Design

Principles 

Definition 

Mission- Experiential opportunities, design and development 

driven activities, research experiences, and/or products 

authentic that contribute to NASA’s endeavors in exploration 

STEM and discovery and help solve problems and address 

experiences needs and priorities that are critical to NASA’s 

mission. 

Evidence- Guidelines, strategies, frameworks, and promising 

based practices informed by research, literature reviews, 

practices and/or evaluation to build the available body of facts 

(evidence) confirming program effectiveness and 

impact. 

Diversity Infuse objectives and target strategies, where 

and practicable, to attract and sustain diversity in 

inclusion student participation, and to incorporate approaches 

to foster and promote inclusion. 

Scalability Incorporate in the design of an activity or product, 

through where appropriate, attributes and characteristics 

partnerships that provide opportunities to leverage partnerships 

and and networks in order to magnify reach and impact 

networks 
Artemis 

STEM 

Challenges 

STEM 

ENGAGEMENT 

SPHERE 1 

ACTIVITIES 

ISS 20th 

Anniversary 

Earth Day 

Mars 2020 

Commercial 

Crew 

FY2020 STEM ENGAGEMENT SPHERE 1 ACTIVITIES 

Approved by the STEM Engagement Council 

October 16, 2019 

7 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-

Current NASA Lunar STEM Challenges 

Human Exploration Student Launch 

Rover Challenge Micro G NExT 

• Integration with Mission 

Directorates to enhance 

alignment and impact of 

Student Challenges with 

Artemis Program needs 

• FY20 solicitation will fund 

additional Space Grant 

opportunities 

2020 BIG Idea Challenge 

Lunabotics Competition* 

S.U.I.T.S 

www.nasa.gov/artemis 

12 12 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

–

Commercial Crew 

• Students and educators embrace the importance of achieving 

safe, reliable and cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit. 

• Develop and deploy an evidence-based toolkit of resources and 

content for educators and students that includes engineering 

challenges, coding, digital badging, virtual reality and more. 

ISS @20 

• Bring ISS into the classroom! Leverage STEM on Station 

content, provide student opportunities to engage in ISS 

research and deliver the excitement of science and 

technology to students in the classroom. 

• This is a milestone. It symbolizes exploration by all that 

dare to dream and work hard to achieve that dream we 

hope an inspiration for all future explorers. Astronaut 

Christina Koch, October 18, 2019. 

9 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mars 2020 Earth Day 

• Engage students and educators through content, lessons and 

activities that use the vantage point of space to understand 

and explore our home planet and create powerful 

connections to the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. 

• Create and disseminate immersive virtual experiences, 

classroom lessons and activities for students and educators in 

advance of the launch and landing of Mars 2020. 

• Utilize Mars 2020 as a platform to engage a broad and 

diverse student population across the U.S. 

10 
Artemis 

STEM 

Challenges 

ISS 20th 

Anniversary 

Commercial 

Crew 

STEM 

ENGAGEMENT 

SPHERE 1 

ACTIVITIES 

Earth Day 

Mars 2020 

SPHERE 1 IMPACT AND SUCCESS CRITERIA 

Success criteria: 

• Increased diversity of student and institution participation 

• Movement along the continuum of the design principles 

• Documented improvements and/or resulting outcomes 

• Defined metrics for each activity 

• STEM Engagement content is consistent and streamlined 

Envisioned impacts: 

• Increased leverage and coordination of Agency resources 

• Increased and broader participation 

• Enhanced diversity of students and institutions 

• Expanded geographic reach 

• Expanded network across Agency and external partners 

• Increased scope and scale 

• Increased access to cadre of experts 

11 
SPACE GRANT: LONG TERM FOCUS AREAS 

Broadly engage all Mission Directorates to define and implement cost-sharing 

opportunities spanning our agency-wide portfolio, with a large array of identified 

benefits: 

• Technical needs of NASA's Mission Directorates directly addressed 

• Student experiences genuinely contribute to NASA's mission, leading to high-quality, 

exciting, authentic experiences as a result 

• A vast nationwide network of strategic partners, such as the Space Grant Consortia, 

becomes more energized ... and expands over time 

Identify and promote best practices, follow-on efforts are scaled up, and 

nationwide, diverse student participation grows while bringing NASA’s missions 

closer to communities across the nation ... which will be an interactive and 

iterative process 
PAST FUNDING STRUCTURE 

Number of Award Status Awards Value 

Designated 35 $760,000 

Non- 17 $570,000 Designated 

NEW FUNDING STRUCTURE 

Number of Award Status Awards Value 

Equal Awards 52 $700,000 

Guam 2 $150,000 Via Hawaii and and Virgin Isl So. Carolina 
 

-

Current NASA Lunar STEM Challenges 

Human Exploration Student Launch 

Rover Challenge Micro G NExT 

• Integration with Mission 

Directorates to enhance 

alignment and impact of 

Student Challenges with 

Artemis Program needs 

• FY20 solicitation will fund 

additional Space Grant 

opportunities 

2020 BIG Idea Challenge 

Lunabotics Competition* 

S.U.I.T.S 

www.nasa.gov/artemis 

18 18 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S.U.I.T.S

Student Launch

Human Exploration

Rover Challenge

STATUS: EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES 

Artemis Student Challenges (HEOMD and STMD) 

• 2019 Artemis-focused Request For Information (RFI) 

• August 2019 RFI Closed 

• September 2019 Review RFI Responses and strategize 

next steps with HEOMD/STMD 

• November 2019 Release Solicitation to the Space Grant 

Community 

• Est. Early-2020 Selection of One-Year Pilot Activities 

and/or Planning Awards 

Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) 

• 2020 BIG Idea Challenge 

• August 2019 Details Publically Released: 

Focus is on Lunar Exploration in the 

Permanently Shaded Regions and In Situ 

Resource Utilization 

• January 2020 Proposals Due 

• February 2020 Selections Made 

Administrator Bridenstine Visited Georgia Tech 

on July 31st and shared his vision: 

“When we partner with a university 

... the students actually develop 

the technology that we fly to the 

moon. And then, when they 

graduate, not only do they have the 

educational background, but they 

have the hands-on experience that 

we can take advantage of and put 

them right to work.” 

19 19 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2020 BIG Idea Challenge 

Seeks innovative ideas from the academic community for a wide variety of concepts, systems, and technology 

demonstrations to address near-term technology capability requirements to support NASA’s exploration 

objectives for Permanently Shadowed Regions in and near the Moon’s polar regions 

http://bigidea.nianet.org/ 

• Objective: Develop a STEM-trained workforce with skills and experience aligned

directly with agency mission needs through rigorous competition designed to address

technical gaps required to advance space exploration. 

• Eligibility: US Space Grant universities; non-space grant universities may partner with a

lead Space Grant university; undergrad and graduate 

• 5-8 teams; 5-20 students per team 

• $50K - $180K development and participation stipend per university team (matching

funds between STMD and Space Grant) 

• Competitive Elements: Proposal; Mid-Point Project Review/Video; Proof-of-Concept;

Technical Paper; Poster; Judged F2F Design Review; Model/Prototype/Demonstration 

• Challenge Launched August 2019; Full academic-year cycle PLUS extension through

October 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FY20 BIG Idea Proposal Themes/Categories 

Exploration of PSRs in polar regions 

• Characterizing the regolith/ surface consistency within the PSR 

• Locating and characterizing lunar water, or other hydrogen-rich deposits 

• Identifying water concentrations - understanding how water ice is mixed with the regolith 

• Thermal environment of the regolith in a PSR 

Technologies to support Lunar ISRU in a PSR 

• Collecting icy regolith 

• Transporting and storing collected water 

• Water purification 

• Demonstrating electrolysis in the relevant environment 

Capabilities to explore and operate in PSRs 

• Innovations in mobility systems 

• Innovations in navigation systems 

• Innovations in power systems 

• Innovations in communications systems 

• Innovations in sensing systems 
National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration 

13