NASA Grant 2014
 

Hi,

My team is going to try for the NASA grant this year, but we're not sure we're eligible. We are a third year team, and we lost two of our major sponsors this year, so we're going to go for the Sustaining grant. However, we are a 4-H team and so we are not run directly out of a school, but the very first line of the grant says this:

FIRST Robotics Competition scholarships are limited to high school students who are involved or planning to get involved in school related robotics clubs or organizations.

Does that mean that we're not eligible? Are there any other 4-H teams out there (or other teams in a similar situation) who've been able to get a NASA grant?

Thank you for your input,
Carli

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

No answers, but we're in the same boat. I'd love to hear from any 4-Hers who've navigated this before.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

Just a heads up NASA came out with an update stating its due on the 1st

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

Wrong on two counts:

A) This only happens if the federal government shuts down.
B) If the federal government did shut down, October 1 would be too late since the shutdown would be underway and the application would be unavailable. The form is set to go offline "on September, 30th 2013 at 0:00:00 PST".

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

We are a 4-H team. I believe we have gotten the Nasa Grant 3 times.

Rookie
Second Year
Sustaining when we lost one major sponsor, which we have sense recouped.

In the State of Indiana, the 4-H programs are run by Purdue University. So when I fill out any grant for our 4-H team, I use Purdue as the grantee if the requirement is that the grant must go to a school. Generally I work with my 4-H Youth Extension Educator and she helps me coordinate with Purdue Grant people. Generally Purdue takes 5-10% or sometimes none, it just varies for running the grant through Purdue.

That's been my experience, I hope that helps.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

Chris,

How did you handle the school demographics questions? Just use the school nearest one to you? The one with the most kids? None and leave a note?

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

A parallel question: have any home-school teams applied for the NASA grant, and if so, what did you put for the school info?

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

I haven't looked at this year's NASA grant, so I am not sure what question you are referring, looking back on past applications I just answered what schools all my students are from. Because we are a 4-H team, we have students from all over the County.

This is UNLIKE the previous team I was on, where the High School had a rule, that no other students from other schools, INCLUDING homeschoolers were allowed on school property. To me, that SEVERELY limited your local reach in the community.

This question?
If the team will be comprised of students from multiple schools, please list schools here (school names only, please):

Huntington North High School
Black Hawk Christian
Homeschoolers Association
Homestead High School


The other question I see is this one:

Another critical element for the success of a FIRST Robotics Competition program within a school is the enthusiastic support of the school or group's administration. Do you have support from your senior-level administration, e.g., principal or superintendent? Yes No
If yes, please describe.

We are technically a 4-H team which is tied to Purdue University as an education extension club. We are enthusiastically supported by our local 4-H Youth Education Director and have offered help to other teams in the State of Indiana that have wanted to organize themselves as 4-H teams. We pride ourselves to be the 1st 4-H FIRST Robotics Team chartered in the State of Indiana.


I have my Youth Educator write a letter on 4-H/Purdue letterhead and send it to NASA.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

So the first question of the grant asks about school information, including the name of the principal, contact info, etc. 4-H is based in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign here in Illinois, so should we try to put in the U of I's information in this section? Or put in the information of one of our local high-schools? Leave it blank? What do you guys think?

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

In the State of Indiana, Purdue University is the "grantee" for our 4-H Club. So I put the address to our 4-H Extension Office. Which is also our official mailing address.

The principle of our "school", is our Extension Office Director.

I never put any reference to our High School.

If someone wants to see our application form from years past, send me a PM with your email address, and I will email you our old application forms.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

Thanks, Chris, I think that answers my question. I'll have to talk to our extension office some more about it.

On a different note, I was wondering, what is the percent success rate in applying for a NASA grant? Are there very many teams out there who've applied for a grant (and fulfilled all the requirements to the best of their knowledge) and not gotten it? Is it a pretty sure thing that we will get it if we follow all the rules and create a well-written grant?

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

In my experience, no. It is never a certain thing.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

It's not a certain thing, but it's also not like a 5% acceptance rate or anything. Your odds are reasonably good if you put together a good submission (which many teams do not do).

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

We have put together many submissions (well written ones that we have shared with many other teams that actually then wound up getting NASA grants) these past few years without any success...:( Good luck to the rest of you out there:)

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

I have another question about NASA grants. I submitted our application late last night.The application is still up, and this morning I thought of something I would like to add to the last question. Is there any harm in re-submitting, does anyone know?

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

Too late for us.
Hoping for no government shutdown....*crosses fingers*

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

Same boat*--I didn't see they'd moved the shutoff up to 2:00 Pacific. We'll cross our fingers that the folks in Washington get their act together and soon.

*Boat not included.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

So if they cannot process new applications, how does the review panel review already submitted apps? Unless, are they still getting paid to work and just can't handle new items?

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

They cannot review any applications until the government returns from any potential shutdown.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

IIRC, they would not be paid.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

And it has become a reality. Its October 1st, no bill has been passed, and government agencies have been ordered to implement their shutdown plans.

Sigh...

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

"September, 30th 2013 at 0:00:00 PST" = September 30, 2013 at 01:00:00 PDT
"September, 30th 2013 at 14:00:00 PST" = September 30, 2013 at 15:00:00 PDT

PST was probably an error—PDT is in effect in the United States, so there's no reason to use PST. (PT should be specified instead, when you want the current time in the Pacific time zone, irrespective of whether standard or daylight time is in effect.)

Also, 00:00:00 is midnight at the start of the day, 24:00:00 is midnight at the end of the day. So (leaving aside the time zone issue) the original instruction seemed to imply that September 30 was too late. Hopefully nobody was planning to have until the end of the day September 30, and got tripped up by this.

Does anyone know at what time submissions were actually put on ice for the duration of the shutdown?

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

The NASA website said 23:59:59 on the 30th (Monday).

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

It said that, but then it was showing 2:00 Pacific after I logged on Monday at around 5:30 PM Eastern (2:30 Pacific).

All moot now, I suppose.

Re: NASA Grant 2014
 

FYI -

4-H Exploding Bacon Robotics did receive the NASA Grant in prior years.

Good Luck everyone.