NASA and Khan Academy have teamed up to increase interest in STEM

NASA and Khan Academy, a non-profit educational website, have debuted a series of online tutorials designed to increase student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM.  The announcement of the new collaborative effort was made today at the 6th annual White House Science Fair. The interactive education lessons invite users to become actively engaged in the scientific and mathematical protocols that NASA uses everyday to measure our universe, to explore the exciting engineering challenges involved in launching and landing spacecraft on Mars, and to learn about other space exploration endeavors and destinations.

YouTube education sensation the Khan Academy debuted a series of tutorials on astronomy and space exploration made in collaboration with NASA Thursday. The announcement at the fourth annual White House Science Fair made it clear that the new tutorials are meant to generate more interest in science, technology, engineering and math (also known as STEM) education. The tutorials on Khan Academy, a non-profit, educational website, are divided into three different sections. Each section is intended to acquaint the user with different aspects of space, and NASA’s understanding and exploration of it — from teaching users about the different protocols NASA uses to explaining the challenges of Mars exploration. The collaboration between NASA and Khan Academy began last summer, when NASA provided Khan Academy with the information to create the educational content. Interactive games and simulations — change the different proposed early models of the solar system, try to land a spacecraft on Mars — were made to allow the student to dig deeper.