THE MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS ROLE AS INTERPLANETARY TEACHERS

In January 2004 the people of Earth found themselves mesmerized and inspired by what was occurring on another world, Mars, located across the vast gulf of space. The twin Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) provided a unique opportunity for teaching Geoscience to the youth of the world. The following activities and events will be used to showcase the enormous impact that these missions have had and continue to have in classrooms across the globe. The Athena Student Interns Program (ASIP) allowed students and teachers from 13 U.S. high schools to work with scientists on the MER Project to investigate the geologic history of Mars. The ASIP teams traveled to the Jet Propulsion Lab in California to help with data analysis during the mission. The Planetary Society conducted an international contest to select a team of 16 students from 12 different countries to also participate in both rover missions. However, the event that reached the most people (over 10,000) was an innovative national educational outreach tour known as “Marsapalooza”. I was a member of this team of MER scientists and engineers. This tour visited five major cities (New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles) in seven jammed packed days. This was the product of a unique partnership funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, produced and directed by Passport to Knowledge, and hosted by several museums, planetariums, science centers, and schools across the country. The objective was to encourage young people to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). NASA’s various planetary missions can be easily used to teach and stimulate our children not only the geosciences but also any of the physical sciences and even some of the social sciences such as history, economics and civics.