Teacher Resources

ORGANIZATIONS

The Planetary Society

The Planetary Society was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray as a non-profit organization dedicated to the exploration of the Solar System and search for extraterrestrial life. The Society is the largest space interest group in the world, with over 100,000 members in 100 countries.

The Planetary Society has a variety of materials relevant to Mars and Mars education.

(1) Mars Underground Newsletter-- available by subscription.

(2) The Planetary Report-- magazine available with membership.

(3) Catalog-- available upon request, has many products, books, slides, etc.

(4) MarsLink Education Kits-- Mars education exercises

Mars Observer

Viking, Mariner,

Phobos

Real Data

The MarsLink Kits are geared toward the Middle School level, with suggestions for adaptation to Elementary and High School classes. The themes of kits produced are:

Temperature, Seasons, and Storms (February 1993)
Topography (February 1994)
Craters and Volcanoes (coming, September 1995)

(5) Red Rover, Red Rover-- Mars rover simulations

New project.

The Planetary Society is planning to expand the Red Rover Project world-wide to include a large number of schools and organizations. An interactive network of Mars sites with a diverse fleet of robotic rovers, each remotely driven by student operators, is envisioned. State-of-the-art computer graphics and local and Internet computer communications programs are being developed for the project. Educational material and on-line computer activities will accompany each link-up.

For More Information, Contact:

			The Planetary Society
			65 N. Catalina Ave.
			Pasadena, CA 91106-5528
			(818) 793-5100

The Challenger Center for Space Science Education

The mission of Space Shuttle Challenger 51-L was Education. But the Shuttle exploded on January 28, 1986. The Challenger Center for Space Science Education is a non-profit organization that is continuing the education mission of the Challenger. The Challenger Center has established more than 20 learning centers across North America, and is actively bringing space education into many thousands of schools where learning centers are not nearby. The Challenger Center will celebrate its 10th Anniversary in April 1996. The anniversary will be marked by a North American Marsville Link Up event involving many schools and institutions in Canada and the U.S.

The Challenger Center has developed numerous space science education projects and mission simulations. Two are directly connected to Mars education: Marsville and Mars City Alpha.

(1) Marsville:

The purpose of "Marsville" is to create for young people a positive vision of the technological society of the 21st Century and their role in making it a reality. Marsville will lead students to an increased appreciation of the fragility of Earth's environment by using Mars as an analog.

Students work in teams to build Mars habitats large enough to walk into and work in. Teams can be composed of students from different classes or even different schools. Teams communicate their construction plans by written or electronic means. On Link-Up Day, the teams come together in a large area such as a gymnasium or shopping mall to assemble their Marsville base and operate it for the day. In Canada each year there is a National Marsville Link-up day, wherein students in several cities across the continent share their Marsville events via satellite television hook-up. In April 1996, Challenger Center plans to have a North American link-up by satellite. Interested teachers should contact the Challenger Center as soon as possible for more information.

(2) Mars City Alpha Kits:

"Mars City Alpha" is a middle curriculum kit which asks students to work in teams to build a hypothetical city on Mars. In the process, students exercise their problem-solving, decision-making, and creative skills. The "Mars City Alpha" kit comes with a teachers guide, student manuals, posters, and NASA activity sheets for students and their parents.

The Challenger Center has recently (July 1995) moved its headquarters. For information about their projects and programs, contact:

	The Challenger Center
	1029 North Royal St., Suite 300
	Alexandria, VA 22314
	phone: (703) 683-9740
	fax: (703) 683-7546

Young Astronaut Corps:

The Young Astronaut Corps. published a curriculum guide for the Mars Observer mission. They printed these at three different grade levels: 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9. These were the December 1992- January 1993 issue (v. 8, n. 2) of the Young Astronauts learning packets. These are copyrighted. The packets are black-and-white and can be photocopied for your class if you either (a) receive it as part of your membership in the Young Astronauts or (b) purchase the individual packet.

For further information, contact:

					Young Astronaut Council
					1308 19th Street, NW
					Washintgon, DC  20036
					(202) 775-1773

Astronomical Society of the Pacific:

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific offers a huge variety of educational materials, some for free (ie. bibliographies and fact sheets) and some for a fee.

They also publish an excellent magazine about Astronomy and astronomy education, called Mercury. Several Mars articles have appeared in Mercury over the past few years, including one on the Arizona Mars K-12 Education Program, published in August 1995.

They have a catalog of slides, videos, posters, etc. for teachers and classrooms, available by writing to:

			Astronomical Society of the Pacific
			390 Ashton Avenue
			San Francisco, CA  94112
			(415) 337-2126

Return to Table of Contents.

TES 1995-1996 Curriculum Guide / Arizona Mars K-12 Education Program