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The History of Mars in the Classroom
Mars in the Classroom began as a twinkling in the eyes of Dr. Sarah Dunkin and Dr. David Heather. After teaming up with Dr. Matthew Blame and Paula Martin funding was secured from COPUS to undertake a pilot scheme. After a period of playing with the experiments and preparing them for approach by the students, the pilot scheme was begun. The initial pilot scheme was run inconjuction with Nicholas Hawksmoor School in Borehamwood over several weeks (total of 12 hours) during the summer term 1999. A class of year 9 students (aged 13-14) was split into 5 teams, who then carried out a series of experiments, culminating in the design of their own manned mission to Mars. Support was provided through school visits and workshops held by the professional scientists. The experiments undertaken at this stage were:
- Mission Briefing
- Impact Cratering
- Playdoh Volcanoes
- Choccy Rocks
- Mission Planning
The feedback from this stage of the pilot scheme was used to develop the individual modules and the overall aim of the project to design a manned mission to Mars. The new and improved pilot version of Mars in the Classroom was then tried out at Charles Edward Brooke School in over several weeks (total 12 hours). As with the original scheme, a year 9 class was split into teams, who then carried out a series of experiments, culminating in the design of their own manned mission to Mars. Once again, support was provided through school visits and workshops held by the professional scientists. The experiments undertaken at this stage were:
- Mission Briefing
- Impact Cratering
- Playdoh Volcanoes
- Choccy Rocks
- Mission Planning
Everyone involved (students, teachers and scientists) thoroughly enjoyed taking part in these pilot schemes.
Using the feedback from both pilot schemes a complete Mars in the Classroom resources pack was created. The funding from COPUS allowed 100 hard copies of this resources pack to be printed and made freely available to schools on a first come, first served basis.
All of these 100 packs have now been distributed, but demand for the resources pack remains high. We are currently looking for funding to produce more hord copies of the resources pack. Meanwhile, we have developed the Mars in the Classroom web site to make the resources pack available for download.