USING THE MARS STUDENT IMAGING PROJECT AS A VEHICLE FOR PARTICIPATORY EXPLORATION: LESSONS LEARNED AND NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ENHANCING K- 14 STEM EDUCATION

NASA’s Mars Program and Arizona State University’s Mars Education Program have partnered with Mars mission teams and Mars Principal Investigator Dr. Phil Christensen to develop and promote an ongoing STEM-based opportunity for students to become active participants in the exploration of the Red Planet. The Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP) has, since 2002, given over 20,000 students from grades 5 through early college, the opportunity to work with scientists, mission planners and Mars education specialists using the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera. MSIP participants are involved in authentic Mars research by imaging and researching a site on Mars using the THEMIS visible wavelength camera onboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Students can participate one of three ways: on-site at ASU, through distance learning and using archived THEMIS images.

Throughout the period of time that the Mars Student Imaging Project has been operating, many lessons-learned have been accumulated, assessed, and project adjustments have been made. This iterative process is crucial to help meet the requirements of a sometimes rapidly changing educational landscape. In schools today, many formidable challenges and barriers are making it difficult for teachers to justify and implement deep, hands-on research projects in the formal education classroom. As high stakes testing, teacher accountability and budget constraints impact the classroom, there becomes a greater need to understand how STEM projects (such as MSIP) can fit into the curriculum and where new opportunities might emerge for students to participate in authentic and data-driven research.