Today's students are the engineers and scientists of the future, so NASA and Texas Instruments (TI) are teaming up and using the one-year International Space Station mission to inspire students to study science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

mISSion imaginaTIon, developed through a partnership between NASA and TI Education Technology, will feature STEM-focused design challenges and classroom activities built around the realities of long-duration stays in space. Visit the mISSion imaginaTIon website at: http://www.missionimagination.com.

"If anything shows students how exciting STEM subjects can be, it's astronauts spending a year in a space station, doing science experiments and demonstrating cutting-edge technology," said Donald James, associate administrator for NASA's Office of Education. "The year-long mission is an excellent opportunity to capture students' attention and set them on a course to become the next generation of explorers."

To kick off mISSion imaginaTIon, students are invited to take an online quiz that allows participants to see whether they have what it takes to fly a year-long mission on the space station. The quiz questions range from how to wash dirty laundry in space to how fast the space station is traveling relative to Earth.

Students can also try their hand at the first of a series of challenges and activities set to rollout on the mISSion imaginaTIon website over the next several months.

"Imagination is the fuel that feeds progress and innovation," said Peter Balyta, president of TI Education Technology. "Alongside NASA, we are excited to unleash student creativity as students explore how science, technology, engineering and math can solve future problems on Earth, in space and beyond."