NASA extends research program with $2.8 million grant to Texas State

SAN MARCOS – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has extended the NASA Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Engagement and Educator Professional Development Collaborative (NASA STEM EPDC) at Texas State University through 2022 with a $2.8 million grant.

Leslie Huling, interim director of the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research and professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, will oversee the grant as principal investigator, with Kristina Collins, assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, serving as co-PI.

This is a continuation of the previously funded, seven-year, $21 million NASA STEM EPDC project, which has reached more than 320,000 educators.

“Dr. Huling and I submitted this proposal to NASA in December of 2020,” said Araceli Ortiz, senior advisor with the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research and research associate professor of engineering education in the College of Education. “This continued NASA support is a testament to the great leadership and management of the EPDC team we have provided since 2014 and to the research and best practices that we are now able to share with great impact.”

Texas State’s NASA STEM EPDC project is a research-based effort designed to support NASA’s STEM engagement and educator professional development strategies at a national level.

The project’s mission is to understand the impact of creating educator communities of learners who are guided in the use of NASA’s educational resources.

The research also seeks insight on curricular and teaching factors that might motivate diverse student audiences to prepare for, and consider pursuing, STEM fields of study.

NASA STEM EPDC includes more than 20 Texas State faculty and staff who work with students and educators at all levels to share STEM learning experiences through NASA STEM contexts.