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The Great Mars Debate
February 5 - February 9, 2001Forum 2/5 - 2/9
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[Educational Objectives and Standards] [Supporting Educational Material] [See the Video Interviews NOW]
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Educational Objectives and Standards
Educational
Objectives
Evaluation of Objectives
1. Students will choose a Mars landing site that
they believe would best answer scientist’s scientific
questions.
NSES
A1, A2, D4, D5 ISTE 3, 5, 6
2. Students will use evidence, logically consistent arguments,
scientific observations of similar features on Earth to
identify cause and effect relationships and to support their
selection of a Mars landing site in an online forum. NSES
A1, A2, D4, D5 ISTE 3, 4, 5, 6 NSES E2
3. Students will use an online forum to ask questions and
query other students’ explanations of their selected
Mars landing sites. They will compare evidence, identify
faulty reasoning, point out statements that go beyond evidence
and suggest alternative explanations for the same observations.
NSES
A1, A2, ISTE 3, 4, 5, 6 1. Have students observe images of the possible Mars landing
sites either on the computer or printed from the links on the Web
page. Have them also look at the scientific questions that scientists
wish to research and the video clips of what characteristics scientists
are looking for in a site. Present the scientific questions in the
trunk of a large tree on a bulletin board or chalk
board. Use the Concept
Map to help you with this. The concept map is a way of representing
ideas and organizing
information. This specific concept map is a research tool especially
designed for this event.
2. Divide students into groups. Have each group take a different
site and make observations of the site and what they see in the
site that might be of interest to scientists.
3. Have groups describe their observations to the class. Observations
might be written around the image of the site and posted on different
branches of the tree.
4. Have students make hypotheses about which site they feel will
best help scientists to answer their scientific questions and why.
Explore
Valles Marineris Sites: These are sites located in parts of the
canyon system that is as long as the
width of the United States. Since
Valles Marineris is a canyon, layers in the rocks should be easy to
see. These layers may be
sedimentary or from lava flows. Also, there could be evidence of
water-carved features. Unlike the
Grand Canyon which was formed by water, many Mars scientists
think Valles Marineris was formed
by tectonics (fracturing of the surface). The closest Earth analog
would be the East African Rift.
Terra Meridiani Hematite Sites: Sites located on Mars by Global
Surveyor that have sand-sized
grains of the mineral hematite.
Hematite is a common iron mineral found on Earth and usually occurs
where rock has interacted with
water. The grains in this deposit are grey, similar to the hematite used
to
make jewelry because of their
size. The red grains in the dust of Mars are the size of powdered sugar.
Both the red and grey hematite are
altered minerals that are produced from iron bearing rocks like
basalt, common in places like the
seafloor of Hawaii. The volcanoes on Mars are the same type of
volcanoes on Hawaii, therefore
they should be producing similar rock. Most meteorites from Mars are
basalt. An example of this type of
site: Terra
Meridiani Hematite
Paleo-lake Sites:Ancient lake bed
Hydrothermal Sites: We do not know if there are hydrothermal
locations on Mars. However,
because there are volcanoes and
substantial evidence of liquid water at the surface of Mars in the past
and there is current evidence for
ground ice and small amounts of liquid water near the surface,
Hydrothermal systems should be
present on Mars. Impacts from meteors can also provide heat for
Hydrothermal systems.
The sites in this category are in
areas that would be the most likely to be hydrothermal. Hydrothermal
sites would give us evidence of
water and rock interactions which is important for life. These sites are
characterized by water carved
features or evidence of water discharged on the surface and a source of
hear such as volcanoes or impact
craters. An example of a hydrothermal site, the top of the image very
clearly shows branches like a tree
which looks much like our river valleys on Earth would appear from
above. Apollinaris Patera 2.
6.Have students record their reasons for choosing
a site on the site’s branch and add two or more leaves with supporting
evidence to the branch. Students should also write out their explanation
as they will post it in the online forum.
7. Have students present their reasoning to the class and post
their explanations in the online forum.
8. After a few days, print out postings to the online forum.
9. Have students identify one explanation that
was posted that they disagree with. Have them design questions and
arguments to clarify parts they found confusing or to point out explanations
that are not logical or go beyond evidence or suggest alternative
explanations for the same observations.
10. Have students post their argument in the online forum and
look for responses to their explanations.
11. From the debates that take place in the online forum, have
students record questions that they might have for a Mars expert
to help clarify points that come up.
12. Once students have been exposed to many arguments and explanations,
ask them to vote as a class on the site they would choose. (They
can change their mind from their initial choice.
Explain *** Some notes on why each type of site is of interest to
scientists and specific site images are available in this section.
Specific site
images are available for landing sites that had been
previously proposed for other missions in the Mars Surveyor Program.
Many of these are very close to the currently proposed landing sites,
and
therefore these images can be very helpful in this debate. Images of
larger regions usually containing several sites are available for all
of
the proposed landing sites through the clickable map here
or by category from the links below. By using the clickable map you can
access additional information such as
the location of hematite deposits discovered by Mars Global Surveyor,
rock abundance in percent surface coverage, topography from the Mars
Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) in kilometers, or the thermal inertia.
(Thermal inertia is a measure of how a surface resists changes in
temperature which is in part an indication of how much dust is covering
the surface. Lower values generally correspond to more dust.)
Some
sites may have features
that
could place them in multiple categories, but have been listed in the
category that best represents the site.
More than 150 different potential landing sites for the Mars Exploration
Rovers were identified by Fall 2000. At the time of the First Landing
Site Workshop for the Mars Exploration Rovers in late January 2001, the
Mars science community had narrowed that list down to a total of 29
specific sites. Each of those 29 sites is in a regional image in the list
below. The goal of the scientists attending the workshop was to reduce
the list of high priority sites to about half a dozen.
Our Images page is a
crucial element for explaining. It contains images of Earth for
camparison, images of
Mars, and specific landing sites.
Extend
14. At the end of the Webcast, a Mars site that was already visited
will be shown. Students will be asked to submit their observations
of what they see in the site and their reasoning for why they think
that site was chosen and will receive feedback from the Mars expert
on why it was chosen.
Evaluate
15. Evaluate students' explanations, observations and use of evidence
for logical reasoning, recognition of cause and effect relationships
and for clear communication of ideas.
16. Have students create a T-Chart comparing 2 of the most popular
sites and the reasons to choose each. Write an explanatory paragraph
describing the better site with at least three supporting pieces
of evidence to choose that site.
MER
Abstract You
will need Adobe Acrobat
Reader(download
here) to
open this PDF. Click on numbers by titles of the abstracts to see
scientists abstracts describing the site they would choose and why.
(This is not written at a K-12 level)
Learn more about Astrobiology and requirements for life. Astrobiology
Institute
Astro-Venture this interactive, multimedia
Web environment allows students in grades 5-8 role-play NASA occupations
as they search for and build a planet that would be habitable to
humans.
This event will be archived and available from the Quest Archive page, and the
expert's profile. This archive can provide a rich source of information
when studying Mars, Debate, and 2003 Rover mission. Use the evaluation
tools provided in the lesson plan or creat your own using the following
links.
Lesson
Engage
Our Images page is a
crucial element for their
exploration. It contains images of Earth for camparison, images of
Mars, and specific landing sites. You also need to know the
following information for the research.
Melas
Chasma
Obviously a lake bed is an area that shows evidence where liquid water was
once on the surface of
Mars. White Rock Basin White
Rock Basin
Apollinaris
PateraAdditional Web sites for research:
Mars Virtual
Reality Website
Main Science page for
the MER2003
Center for Mars Exploration
Conference Web
Site
Rover Site
Arizona K-12 Mars
Exploration Program
JPL Mars Education
Viking Orbiter
images
Viking Orbiter images
of Mars surface
JPL Mars site
Mars Exploration
Rover website
United States Geological Survey
MER page
On-line Education and
Outreach by Mary Urquhart, Ph.D.
Teachers tour guide
to the planets
Question of
life on Mars
Web site extensions:
Follow Up
Questions and comments about this event
can be sent to:
tkrieg@quest.arc.nasa.gov
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