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Informal Educators (Including Museum, Planetarium, Science Center, Library, Afterschool Staff)

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has an essential role in NASA's education mission "to inspire the next generation of explorers." The discoveries and new knowledge from our missions and research programs consistently engage people's imaginations, inform informal educators – such as museum and science center educators, librarians, after-school providers - and excite children about science and exploration. Here you will find information that will allow you to:


Find Programs for Informal Educators
New opportunities, such as availability of new out-of-school time materials or informal educator workshops, will be advertised through Community Announcements and in the Calendar. Please contact the correspondent listed.


Find SMD Informal Education Resources
The NASA SMD E/PO program has created a variety of source material, exhibits and shows, educational activities, and other resources for the informal science education community. These resources use the excitement of SMD’s scientific explorations of our Earth and the universe beyond to help you inspire wonder and curiosity about science with your audiences. Over their five-year effort, the Forums will assist SMD in developing a “one-stop-shop” to provide an intuitive and searchable database of SMD products and activities. New resources will also be listed in the Community Announcements section of this workspace.

To get started, visit NASA’s Museum Alliance.

If you are looking for a speaker for your program or event, consider contacting these networks of volunteers:

Solar System Ambassadors

Night Sky Network Amateur Astronomy Clubs

You may also want to visit these pages created by NASA's Office of Education:

NASA Teaching Materials


Learn More about SMD’s Informal Education Working Group
The Informal Education Working Group is tasked with providing NASA SMD and its four Forums (Astrophysics, Earth Science, Heliophysics, Planetary Science) with data, analysis, and access to expertise on informal science education audiences and initiatives. If you are interested in learning more about the Informal Education Working Group, examine the Informal Education section under “Documents.” Over the five-year lifetime of the Forums, this section will grow to contain a library of information about best practices in informal science education and the needs of the informal science education community with respect to the use of SMD content, expertise, and facilities.


Propose an Education or Public Outreach Project to SMD
SMD encourages informal educators to be involved in projects that will directly impact their audiences. If you have a great idea for an educational project, you might consider pursuing one of two types of grants offered by SMD:

  1. Proposals for Education and Public Outreach in Earth and Space Science (EPOESS) are requested annually, as part of NASA SMD’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES). These typically are in the range of $100,000 annually for one to three years.

Proposal Solicitation
2010 Selections
2009 Selections
2008 Selections

  1. Proposals for supplemental education and public outreach grants to ongoing SMD-funded research projects are requested twice a year. These must be proposed by the scientist leading the research project in collaboration with an educator. The parent research project must have at least 12 months remaining at the time of proposal submission. Proposals can be submitted for one of two paths:
    • Education projects (up to $15,000 for each year remaining on the parent research project). For proposal guidelines, click here.
    • Outreach projects (up to $10,000 for each year remaining on the parent research project). For proposal guidelines, click here.

2009 Education Supplements

2009 Outreach Supplement Selections

2008 Education Supplement Selections

2008 Outreach Supplement Selections

For either of these opportunities proposers are encouraged to carefully read abstracts of previously selected proposals before they begin their own proposal. We also recommend that you carefully read the evaluation criteria by which proposals are reviewed. The most up-to-date versions can be found here.

You may also find solicitations for other types of education and outreach projects from other NASA divisions at NASA’s clearinghouse for proposal information (NSPIRES).


Partner with an SMD E/PO Community Member
New opportunities for partnership are advertised through Community Announcements. Please contact the correspondent listed. If you would like to find a partner, please contact the Science Education and Public Outreach Forum that most closely aligns with your content interest; contacts are listed in the “About” menu under “Questions / Contact.”