About

Throughout Hubble Space Telescope's lifetime its mission has inspired and promoted education. The final Hubble servicing mission (2009) and the celebration of Hubble's 20th anniversary (2010) are key mission milestones, and both enrich activities for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

U.S. formal (K-12 and college) and informal educators are invited to submit their best examples of using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope for science, technology, engineering or mathematics education.  Those selected as Top Stars will receive national recognition and awards. Top Stars is an IGES initiative, through funding from NASA, and in cooperation with the Space Telescope Science Institute.


From May 2009 and into 2010, IGES will accept and review entries from U.S. educators of their best examples of using Hubble for STEM education (see planned schedule below). The contest is open to individuals, and teams of up to four people, who are U.S. citizens and are at least 21 years old. IGES and NASA employees, or their contractors, are not eligible.

Participating educators may register and save their entries on the Top Stars web site.  This enables them to log-in and edit their entries.  Educators are allowed and encouraged to revise, improve and re-submit their entries up to the final deadline in 2010.

Entries will be reviewed by IGES, NASA scientists and educators.  Those judged as meeting the review criteria will be recognized as "Top Stars."  These educators will receive the following recognition and awards:

• Their entry will be featured online in the Top Stars Showcase.
• A high-quality photo print (48" x 24") of a Hubble image. It is anticipated that prints will be available after September 2009.
• Invitation to attend a special briefing by a Hubble scientist or engineer. The briefing will be held by group teleconference call.  Two briefings will be scheduled between October 2009 and February 2010. Top Stars can pick one of the two briefings to attend.
• Recognition as Top Stars on NASA Websites.

In 2010 IGES and NASA will select the top 10 overall entries, which will be recognized as "Gold Stars."  In addition to the Top Star rewards, these educators will also receive:

• an official letter of commendation from NASA,

• an interview for a feature article on nasa.gov (individual articles are planned featuring each educator or team of educators),

• an invitation to present their entry to other educators nationwide over the NASA Digital Learning Network, and

• more TBA.

See project Guidelines for information on criteria for reviewing entries.

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