HOUSTON, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In partnership with the Texas Business and Education Coalition, the state of Texas and Microsoft, NASA is pleased to invite Texas high school students to participate in the bliink Web design competition.

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO )

Microsoft has held the bliink competition since 2008 and included NASA in this year's contest to help promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) areas with high school students.

To compete, students form a team of two to four students, choose a team name and ask a teacher to sponsor them. The registration deadline is Feb. 24 and the last day to submit an entry is March 25, 2010.

Student participants will design and develop a Web site using Microsoft® Expression® suite of software tools which is provided free of charge. Free learning resources are also available.

Students participating in this unique competition select from two challenges:

Mission 1: Design a Web Site for NASA. Design introductory Web pages for the Student International Space Station Mission Control Training Program.  

Mission 2: Communicate How the International Space Station Benefits all People.

Winners of the 2010 competition will be announced May 3, 2010.

"NASA welcomes the opportunity to partner with Microsoft in engaging Texas high school students to consider the technical and social benefits and complexities of the International Space Station," says Mark Severance, Manager, International Space Station National Laboratory Education Projects.  "The space station provides a unique venue not only for science, technology, engineering and mathematics related subject matter but for insight into the international human element. Sixteen nations work together on arguably the most complex engineering project ever undertaken.  We look forward to the articulation of these concepts within the web pages developed in this creative challenge."

NASA continues the agency's investment in the nation's education programs. It supports the agency's major education goal of attracting and retaining students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines that are critical to future space exploration.

For more information on the Microsoft bliink competition, contact ew4hs@innovativeteachers.us or visit:

www.bliinkcontest.com

For more information about NASA and its educational programs visit:

www.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA

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http://www.nasa.gov
http://www.bliinkcontest.com