Mars Project Student Instructions

Revised: August 28, 1998.
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Mars: the Future Frontier

Dear student,

The topic of Mars exploration is an issue of hot debate among the world's leading astronomers. It is truly a global issue, because decisions about making Mars habitable, sending humans to Mars, and maybe even colonizing the Red Planet have the potential to literally affect everyone on Earth. You are about to begin a project that may provide valuable information to this worldwide debate, by encouraging input from elementary and middle school students from around the globe.

You and your classmates will be responsible for creating and maintaining a Web site called "Mars: The Future Frontier." The site will include a list of suggestions for making Mars habitable; a "microbe zoo," consisting of student drawings of the microscopic life forms we might discover frozen in the Martian surface; a job description for humans wishing to go to Mars; and a "Mars Treaty," based on the Antarctic Treaty. The site will eventually incorporate input and artwork (with full credit for all ideas and artwork, of course!) from students all over the planet.

Our Web site will explore four categories of Mars exploration: (1) Making Mars habitable, (2) Martian life, (3) Sending humans to Mars, and (4) Colonizing Mars. You will work with a committee to develop and maintain Web pages about one of these four areas.

Creating your Web pages is just the first step. Once we've published our site on the Internet, you and your teammates will be responsible for responding to questions and comments from our global audience. You will post the most interesting ones to the Web site. Please read all these instructions and check out my copyright issues page before you begin. It is very important that we give credit to our project participants from other areas of the world.

Please send me feedback about this assignment. Happy publishing!

Tammy McConnell
tammym@construx.com

Table of Contents:

This page includes:

Title

	Goals
	Objectives

Timeline, including committee descriptions and Web site addresses

	How the results will be reported
	Expectations from each participating school

	Assessment rubric
	Communication

Title: Mars: The Future Frontier

Goals:

Science EALR 4: Students will use effective communication skills and tools to build and demonstrate understanding of science.

Communication EALR 2: Students will communicate ideas clearly and effectively.

Objectives:

Science EALR 4: Students will use effective communication skills and tools to build and demonstrate understanding of science. Students will:

	use listening, observing and reading skills to obtain science information
	use writing skills to organize and express science ideas
	use effective communication strategies and tools to prepare and present science information

Communication EALR 2: Students will communicate ideas clearly and effectively. Students will:

	communicate clearly to a range of audiences for different purposes
	develop content and ideas
	use language that is grammatically correct, precise, engaging and well-suited to topic, audience and purpose

Timeline for completion:

This project will begin in October 1998 and run through June 1999.

Day one:

View the following Web sites (whole class activity with computer linked to TV monitor):

	Mars Academy -- an on-line, collaborative site for high school students -- at http://www.marsacademy.com/
	Discovery Online's Unofficial Space, "Planet Earth: Take 2" about Mars colonization and terraforming -- at http://www.discovery.com/stories/unofficialspace/980827/space.html
	To Terraform or Not to Terraform -- a teacher lesson plan developed by NASA -- at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/teachers/tg/closing/ActB-3.html

Sign up for one of the four committees: (1) Making Mars habitable, (2) Martian life, (3) Sending humans to Mars, and (4) Colonizing Mars.

Days two and three: Meet with your committee to look at your assigned Web sites (or hard copies of the articles). Discuss your assignment. Here are the committee assignments and Web site jumps. Just click on the underlined parts, or links, to visit the sites.

(1) Making Mars habitable -- scan the Web pages listed below; create and maintain a list of suggestions for making Mars habitable.

The Terraforming Debate -- at http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/2.18/960830-terraform.html

Mars the Final Frontier -- at http://www.nsplus.com/nsplus/insight/mars/frontier.html

(2) Martian life -- scan the Web pages listed below; create and maintain a "Martian microbe zoo" of drawings created by students.

Evolution of the Martian Climate -- at www.sigmaxi.org/amsci/articles/96articles/Zent-6.html

Romance to Reality -- at http://members.aol.com/dsfportree/ex96.htm (The background note, August 1996 at the beginning, is the only part you need to read.)

(3) Sending humans to Mars -- scan the Web pages listed below; create and maintain a job description for people who want to travel to Mars.

A Private Initiative -- at http://www.nw.net/mars/art1.html

Life on Mars a Possibility -- at http://www.soc.american.edu/observe/back/mars2.html

(4) Colonizing Mars -- scan the Web pages listed below. Create and maintain a "Mars Treaty," based on the Antarctic Treaty.

Antarctic Treaty -- at http://www.nbs.ac.uk/. Read it carefully because you will be writing a similar treaty for Mars.

The Gold Rush (just to give you a feel for the kinds of issues that can arise when land and resources are "free for the taking") -- at http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/goldcountry.html

Days four to ten:

Web page design and construction -- Storyboard how you'd like your page (or pages) to look. Be sure to leave "virtual space" for including global input.

As time allows, your and your classmates will work on your Web sites.

Day eleven:

View all Web pages as a class. Make suggestions for improvement.

Days twelve to fourteen:

Fine-tune the Web pages.

Day fifteen:

View all Web pages as a class again. Wrap-up discussion, including maintenance of Web pages.

How the results will be reported

We will report the results of global participation in our Web site by updating our Web pages to include participant input.

Expectations from each participating school

Please see the posting we wrote for teachers around the world by clicking project posting.

Assessment rubric

You will be graded on a 100% scale. All students will receive 60% for participating in Web page creation and maintenance. The other 40% will be a group grade, based on the final product -- the Web page or pages. Committees can receive a maximum of four points, which translates to 40% of their grade.

The following rubric describes the four point scale for Web pages:

4.0 -- Students fully met all of the following criteria:

	Science: Students used listening, observing and reading skills to obtain science information. They used effective writing skills and other strategies to express science ideas.
	Communication: Students communicated clearly to a range of audiences and developed content and ideas. They used language that was grammatically correct and well-suited to the topic, audience and purpose.

3.0 -- Students fully met the criteria for one of the assessment areas (science or communication) and most of the criteria for the other assessment area.

2.0 -- Students fully met the criteria for one of the assessment areas (science or communication), but did not meet the criteria for the other assessment area.

1.0 -- Students did not fully meet the criteria for either assessment area (science or communication).

Communication -- Please click communication for information on communicating with project participants.