below: Mars Surveyor 1998 Lander (has nothing to do with the Scablands, it just looks cool!)


K-12 Educators from Washington and Idaho Selected to Participate in the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site II Accompanying Field Trip in the Channeled Scablands of Washington



by K.S. Edgett, 7 May 1995


Eleven K-12 Educators were competatively selected to participate in the Channeled Scablands Field Trip scheduled for September 1995 on the basis of planned educational follow-up activities involving students, teachers, and parents in their home communities. The field trip is designed to bring together Mars Pathfinder scientists and engineers, K-12 teachers from Washington and Idaho, and other members of the Mars scientific community. A total of 12 educators will be on the trip, the 12th person is Jo Dodds of O'Leary Junior High School, Twin Falls, Idaho, who worked with the Field Trip coordinators to advise and help select the other 11 educators.

The Field Trip, which runs September 24-27, 1995, in the Channeled Scablands of Washington State accompanies the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site II Workshop, "Characteristics of the Ares Valles Region." The field trip includes surface investigations and aircraft overflights of the Scablands. The overflights are crucial to understanding the full three-dimensional context and history of the immense landforms produced by the Missoula Floods, as well as the much larger flood features in Ares Valles, Mars. Despite Mars Pathfinder not aquiring descent imaging to aid in interpreting the origin of features seen from the lander, Fied Trip participants will gain an intuitive understanding of the relationship between flood geomorphology seen from above and the landforms seen from the ground. Areas of the Scablands to be investigated include the streamlined loess islands and flood sediments of the Cheney-Palouse Scabland Tract, the Dry Falls, giant current ripples, and the Ephrata Fan / Quincy Basin regions.

A second field trip is planned for September 30, 1995, to visit the features associated with ice-dam breakage and draining of Lake Missoula to cause the Scablands. This trip will head northeast from Spokane to Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho.

Eleven educators and 5 alternates were selected to go on the field trip. Alternates will be called in the event that one of the 11 selected cannot make the trip. Selection was based on the merit of each educator's proposed plan for sharing the Mars Pathfinder / Scablands experience with students, teachers, and parents in their community. The proposals were evaluated by the Field Trip convenors, Dr. Ken Edgett and Mr. Jim Rice of Arizona State University, and by Jo Dodds of O'Leary Junior High School, Twin Falls, Idaho. There was a total of 63 applicants for 11 slots. All applicants received Mars educational materials from the Arizona Mars K-12 Education Program.

The educators selected are listed below.



TEACHERS FROM WASHINGTON:


Louise Fayette
Toppenish Middle School
Toppenish, WA 
grades:  8
specialties:  Earth Sciences

Christopher M. Flanagan
Centennial Middle School
Spokane, WA 
grades:  8
specialties:  Earth Science / Algebra

Maureen Harder
Ritzville High School
Ritzville, WA 
grades:  5-12
specialties:  Math / Science / Special Ed.

Michael A. Murray
Alki Middle School
Vancouver, WA 
grades:  8
specialties:  Physical Science

Keith Olive
Wilson Middle School
Yakima, WA 
grades:  8
specialties:  Earth Science

Dr. Meredith B. Olson
Seattle Country Day Middle School
Seattle, WA 
grades:  5-8
specialties:  Physical, Geological, Planetary Sciences

Fran O'Rourke
Cedar Wood Elementary
Bothell, WA
grades:  4-5
specialties:  Science / Math



TEACHERS FROM IDAHO Thomas C. Campbell Capital High School Boise, ID *and* T.C. Bird Planetarium, Boise, ID grades: 11-12 / K-12 specialties: Astronomy John Gallagher O'Leary Junior High School Twin Falls, ID grades: 9 specialties: Earth Science Sheri Klug Marsing Middle School (office) Marsing, ID grades: K-12 specialties: Gifted / Talented Linda Selvig Centennial High School Boise, ID grades: 9th specialties: Earth Science / Honors
RUNNERS_UP FROM WASHINGTON (In the order that they would be called if needed for trip): 1. Lisa J. Parker Kentridge High School Kent, WA grades: 10-12 specialties: Earth Science / Astronomy 2. Heather H. Cassidy Chase Middle School Spokane, WA grades: 7-8 specialties: Earth, Life, Environmental Sciences 3. Julie Sutherland Silver Lake Elementary Federal Way, WA grades: 5-6 specialties: n/a
RUNNERS_UP FROM IDAHO (In the order that they would be called if needed for trip): 1. John Fisher Lewiston High School Lewiston, ID grades: 10-12 specialties: Biology, Zoology, Environmtl Sciences 2. Karen Byers University of Idaho, Moscow, ID *and* Lena Whitmore Elementary Moscow, ID grades: 3 and 5 specialties: Science and Math

K.S. Edgett

Arizona Mars K-12 Education Program