Are you ready to solve the challenges of space?

Join the RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge!

This is a unique education initiative that targets students in grades 9-12 and encourages them to explore and build skills essential for successful careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) through two phases of project-based learning and team competition.

Phase 1 - RealWorld Design

Teams of high-school-aged students and coaches work as engineers and scientists to explore and design solutions to two real-world problems related to the James Webb Space Telescope.

Phase 2 - InWorld Design

Interested teachers/coaches and teams of 3-5 high-school-aged students register to move InWorld to continue working in a 3D virtual environment.

Participating college students build InWorld teams by selecting from registered teams and their teachers/coaches. Each InWorld team is assigned an engineer or scientist mentor.

In a virtual world setting, each newly formed team uses 21st Century tools to refine designs and to create 3D models of the Webb telescope.

Webb engineers will visit and "chat" InWorld throughout the challenge.

Participation in Phase 2 is limited to U.S. citizens.

Take the challenge! Only coaches and students who submit their final RealWorld project solutions by December 15, 2010, are eligible to move to the InWorld phase to compete for scholarships and technology awards.

Press Room Resources to clarify and promote the RealWorld-InWorld Design Challenge can be found here.