THE BIG RED CARROT - MARS AS A TOOL FOR GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION

The selection of landing sites for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, to be launched in 2009, has been used to enthuse and encourage undergraduate geoscience students to learn advanced geoscience skills, teamwork, and a greater appreciation of the need to have a strong background in other science disciplines. Cross-year undergraduate teams have been studying potential landing sites since 2006, with the aim of presenting their findings at internal and external symposia, and possibly at the NASA site selection meeting late in 2007. Five of the "official" NASA landing sites were eliminated late 2006, and more are expected to be "voted out" before the final selection seminar in October 2007. The results of student surveys are presented to show the enhanced enthusiasm for science research that involvement in this real research program has engendered amongst students who have never been able to be involved in research before. Longitudinal surveys of students involved in a similar program for the Opportunity and Spirit Mars rovers showed an average improvement in grades of 15% over non-involved students studying otherwise identical undergraduate units.