NASA awards climate change teaching grants

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- NASA says it has awarded $6.4 million in climate change grants to U.S. institutions of higher education and not-for-profit education organizations.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the money is designed to enhance learning through the use of its Earth science resources. The grant winners proposed ways to enhance students' academic experiences or improve educators' abilities to engage their students by providing opportunities to investigate the Earth system using NASA resources.

The space agency said the grants support its goal of engaging students in the critical disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and inspiring the next generation of explorers.

Officials said 22 proposals were selected from the District of Columbia and 14 states: Alaska, Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

The awards have up to a three-year period of performance and range in value from $140,000 to $500,000.

A list of the selected proposals is available at

http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/viewrepositorydocument/cmdocumentid=187048/GCCE_NSPIRES_Listing.pdf.