The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center’s Learning Technologies Project Office (LTPO) has released a Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) to conduct research and evaluation on the design and usage of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) and Persistent Immersive Synthetic Environments (Virtual Worlds) for NASA Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education and Training.

This solicitation seeks proposals that communicate the required approach and skills to contribute to NASA and other federal agencies, private industry and academia’s research initiatives to improve STEM content and delivery approaches that promote the development of our nation’s future workforce, workforce applications, and missions.
 
Proposals should provide evidence-supported approaches, techniques, and tools that are grounded in education research that contribute to collaborative research for improving STEM education via gaming and simulations; and stimulate linkages and connections to and from secondary education and higher education and informal education communities using NASA content within a gaming context.

The anticipated maximum number of awards is three (3) with an approximate total of $1,650,000 will be available to award as a cooperative agreements under this solicitation. One award of up to $350,000 annually will be made for up to three years to partner with LTPO and the MMOG developer to infuse educational content and design into the NASA MMOG. One award of up to $100K annually is planned to award an independent evaluation effort for up to three years and one award up to $100K annually is planned to conduct broad-based research of the applicability of educational gaming to diverse institutions and people.

The LTPO NASA Cooperative Agreement Notice is available on the NASA Headquarters solicitations website: http://nspires.nasaprs.com.  Additionally, any Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that arise after the announcement is released will be posted on NSPIRES.

The NASA point of contact regarding the LTPO is:
James L. Harrington, Jr.
Learning Technologies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Mail Stop 606.3
Greenbelt, MD 20771