NSHSS is pleased to have recently added two new educational partners to help provide opportunities for our members.
NSHSS is pleased to announce its partnership with Zinch.com! Zinch is an online social network that has become one of the top outreach tools for US colleges and universities. Zinch began as a dorm room project out of Princeton University. The website allows students to showcase themselves to colleges early in the recruiting process. Zinch does this by allowing students to create multi-media profiles highlighting their talents and accomplishments to colleges as well as interact with college admission officers and their high school peers. The student’s information is totally safe and secure, and can be relayed to interested universities at the student’s discretion. All Zinch.com services are free to high school students.
In just over one year, Zinch has already helped nearly 600 colleges, including more than 50 of the US News and World Report Top 100 schools, to make real connections with over 430,000 students nationwide. Zinch is currently offering a $20,000 scholarship to its users! If you would like to get an edge in college admission, please visit Zinch.com through our NSHSS partner link.
NSHSS has partnered with The Conrad Foundation, a non-profit, organization built upon astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad's history of innovation and entrepreneurship. The mission of the Foundation is to energize and engage students in science and technology through unique entrepreneurial opportunities. The Foundaiton has launched the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards, which challenge students to create new concepts in specific science and technology related categories. Current categories are: Manned spaceflight; Lunar Exploration; and Renewable Energy. The final Conrad Awards competition will be held at the Innovation Summit on April 2-4, 2009, located at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. The submission deadline is January 9, 2009, and the competition overview is described below.
Team Profile Pages are now active!! Registered teams can now access their public profiles to promote their competition products and raise funds for their work and their school. Teams should login to their accounts and update profiles as soon as possible. Once a team has activated their profile, it will be publicly viewable by clicking on the team's name at www.conradawards.org/teams.php. Please take a moment to get to know your favorite Conrad Award teams.
Upcoming Live Video Chat Thursday, Dec. 4th, at 5:00 p.m. EST
with Patricia Hynes, Director for the New Mexico Space Grant
Consortium (NMSGC) and the NASA EPSCoR program. Ms. Hynes will
speak about the personal spaceflight industry and the companies
currently involved in bringing new aerospace opportunities to the
public. Registered teams may access this session by logging into
www.conradawards.org, or members of the public may participate on
our USTREAM.tv channel:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/conrad-award-expert-sessions.
Competition Overview
The Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards challenge teams of high school students to:
- CREATE AN ENTREPRENEURIAL ENTERPRISE FOR LUNAR EXPLORATION;
- CREATE AN INNOVATIVE PRODUCT FOR USE IN PERSONAL SPACEFLIGHT; or
- CREATE A CLEAN, CARBON-FREE WAY OF USING RENEWABLE ENERGY TO CHANGE EVERYDAY LIFE.
Students can compete in any of these three categories by registering a team of up to five students and submitting three documents about their concept: a technical report, a business plan, and a graphical representation. Specific requirements are on the website.
Finalists are selected from these initial submissions based upon a judging matrix. Finalist teams will be invited to the Innovation SummitTM, April 2nd - 4th 2009, at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, California. The Innovation SummitTM includes workshops, presentations, special networking opportunities, and other activities for finalist teams in addition to the ability to compete for the top prizes of the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards.
Teams will compete for over $120,000 in prize money, as well as the opportunities to connect with leading scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. The awards create a long term community for students and teachers and provide resources and opportunities to develop and incubate commercial products. The competition is just the beginning of this journey.
All registered teams will be provided online profiles as a mechanism for raising funds and public support for their team and their school. The Conrad Foundation will also be announcing a series of live internet chat sessions with members of their panel of experts. Each session will be available for registered teams to interact directly with leading scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
Register your team now! – Final submission deadline: January 9, 2009