ABSTRACT
Summary: NASA press releases contain a wealth of quantitative information and understated mathematics, which can be used to stimulate student interest in mathematics and science. Students are often curious about space themes, such as the search for extraterrestrial life, black holes, or space exploration. For this reason, press releases about discoveries in space make mathematics relevant and interesting to students beyond the mundane application problems so common in modern-day mathematics textbooks. The overarching goal of the SpaceMath@NASA program is to assist students in seeing the mathematics behind the scientific discovery. We will describe this program and how we ‘reverseengineer’ press releases to uncover the often simple mathematics suitable for on-grade-level learners in grades 3-12.
