At the Texas Computer Education Association’s annual conference in Austin in early February, Texas Instruments announced that it has teamed up with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop free online math content for teaching Algebra I through AP Calculus.

The “Exploring Space Through Math” curriculum is aligned with standards from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Portions of the curriculum are available on NASA’s web site now, and more content will be posted as it is created. TI and NASA also are creating resources that use this material with the TI-Nspire handheld instructional system; these documents will be available for downloading from NASA’s web site and the TI Teacher Exchange in time for the 2010-11 school year, the two parties say.

The materials aim to use students’ interest in space exploration as a “hook” to get them interested in math. Students will be able to design a space capsule, control the launch of a shuttle, and more–learning key math concepts along the way. The curriculum follows the “5E” instructional model, NASA said: engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate. http://humanresearch.jsc.nasa.gov/education/educationprojects.asp