NASA announced a great new opportunity for teachers to use the space program’s discoveries as educational tools in their classrooms. The NASA Endeavor Science Teaching Fellowship Project will award 40 one-year fellowships to educators during the next 5 years. These fellowships will allow teachers to translate current NASA science and engineering projects into usable information for students in grades K–12.

According to NASA, the goal of the project is to help these educators “inspire the next generation of explorers, scientists, engineers, and astronauts.”

This is a wonderful opportunity for any science teacher. Too many young people today think that being involved in space exploration and aeronautics is something only for dreams. How many kids do you know who dreamed of being an astronaut when they were young but gave up that dream for a more “practical” career choice? Sure, not everyone can go up in space. But as the launch of the Endeavour STS-126 mission showed last week, a lot of people do various essential jobs to make space travel possible.