Mars millennium project, The

Teaching Pre K-8, Nov/Dec 1999 by Riley, Richard W

Kids design a Martian village, and learn about their own communities too.

I want to tell you about an exciting project that can get students fired up about art, music, science, math, social studies and just about any other subject under the sun. As the countdown to the new century continues, the Mars Millennium Project provides a wonderful opportunity to engage your students in a creative endeavor that focuses on the future.

Life on Mars. The Mars Millennium Project encourages students throughout the United States to work with teachers, artists, scientists and engineers to design a livable community of 100 people on the planet Mars in the year 2030. In classrooms and youth groups, in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools, students are finding creative ways to weave arts, sciences, math, geography and humanities into an exploration of their own communities.

The result will be thousands of ideas for a village on Mars. Student projects will be entered into a national registry during this school year, with finished works displayed in local communities, museums and libraries nationwide next spring and summer and in a virtual gallery online. In addition, NASA hopes to encode completed projects on a computer chip and send them to Mars on a future mission.

I feel very fortunate that my travels around the country have allowed me to visit with students and entire communities who have been inspired by the Mars Millennium Project.

Virtual flight. In a coliseum in Chattanooga, TN, NASA used satellite imagery to take students, teachers, community members - and me - on a thrilling virtual flight to Mars. Students could use the images of Mars' hills and valleys to choose an appropriate site for their Martian village. After the virtual flight brought us Dast the moon. down to Earth and to the doors of the coliseum., students read quotations from historical figures who imagined the future. Finally, 300 students performed an interpretative dance that captured the low gravity and exotic life of Mars.

Red wagons and Maslow. In Houston, students worked with engineers to design a solar-powered Mars Rover. Their design began with a little red wagon. Then, with some imagination, new tires and a solar engine, they had a Mars Rover. Anyone who's seen a soapbox derby knows that such projects can bring out children's creativity. With the hard work they put into their Mars Rover, these students learned about solar energy, vehicle design and teamwork.

At a summer project in Los Angeles, students used Maslow's Theory of Motivation to design their Mars, Village. As you know, Maslow's Theory is based on a hierarchy of needs, beginning with basic physiological needs for things like food, water, air and sleep. The students' village design addressed not only these issues, but moved on to security, a sense of belonging, esteem and finally self-actualization - the development and use of one's talents to the fullest extent, a perfect fit for students involved in the Mars Millennium Project.

Project guides. Working with NASA, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Getty Trust and the United States Postal Service, the Department of Education is making available the Mars Millennium participation guides, which have information about how teachers, students and members of the community can get involved. To receive a free copy of the Mars Millennium Project guide, please call 8774-ED-PUBS or visit the Mars Millennium Project website at www.mars203O.net

I hope you'll consider how your students can benefit from the Mars Millennium Project. It's a once-in-amillennium opportunity for kids to design a Martian village from the ground up and to learn about what makes their own communities work.