Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

RELEASE: 00-71

Are there quakes on Mars? What's up with orbital debris? Does fire rejuvenate the landscape? Students nationwide tackled these and many other questions as part of the NASA Student Involvement Program (NSIP) academic competition.

Forty-one high school students and twenty teachers from around the country have won an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, DC, for national recognition in the NASA Student Involvement Program. The students and their winning projects will be presented at the NSIP Symposium on Monday, May 8, at the Marriott at Metro Center, 775 12th Street, NW, Washington, DC. All program events will be open to the press.

The symposium will feature presentations of the winning entries in each of the following competition areas: Designing a Mission to Mars; Watching Earth Change; and Aeronautics and Space Science Journalism. Students and NASA scientists will discuss issues raised by each of the winning teams.

The competition, conducted for NASA by TERC of Cambridge MA, in partnership with the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies, Arlington, VA, and WT Chen & Co., Waltham, MA, promotes critical and creative thinking in the areas of science, mathematics and technology. Over 3,000 students participated in the competition nationwide.

First place middle school winners will attend NASA Space Camp, in Huntsville, AL. Among this yea's middle school winners, a team of Native American students from Tuba City, AZ, captured the national first prize in Aeronautics and Space Science Journalism with their video documentary on the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

A complete list of NSIP high school, middle school and primary school winners and their projects can be found at:

http://www.nsip.net/