May 01, 2002
What would life be like if Mars were your home?
As part of the sixth annual Space Day celebration, NASA Administrator
Sean O'Keefe announced today the launch of the Imagine Mars project
at the opening ceremony for "Space Day 2002?Adventure to
Mars!" at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum,
Washington, D.C. The project is a national arts, science and technology
initiative that challenges young people to imagine and design a livable
Mars community of the future.
Co-sponsored by NASA and the National Endowment for the Arts, the
Imagine Mars project builds upon the success of the Mars Millennium
project and the enthusiasm of its hundreds of thousands of participants,
many of whom asked that the project be continued after the nation's
millennium celebration in 2000-2001.
Like its predecessor, the Imagine Mars project is a Web-based
initiative that provides educators and project leaders with lesson plans,
Mars facts and other resources to lead student project teams. The goal is
to encourage students to explore their own community, to interact with
scientists, engineers, artists, architects and community leaders, and to
understand the different planetary environment on Mars. After they've
conducted that research, they will decide which arts, scientific and
cultural elements would be important to include in their imagined
community on Mars.
"Through the arts and humanities, the Imagine Mars project
opens the door to scientific discovery for students and teachers who
might not otherwise be exposed to the excitement of Mars
exploration," said Michelle Viotti, Mars Public Engagement
manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The best part is that students are
learning what makes life in their own communities so vibrant, even as
they're engaging their imaginations in a futuristic Mars experience of
their dreams."
The Imagine Mars project draws from curricular materials and concepts
developed for the Mars Millennium project Web site, which received more
than 10 million hits from around the world. The interdisciplinary,
educational nature of the project encouraged learning from students of
all interests, and allowed a great deal of flexibility for classrooms in their
project participation. For example, students in Fort Worth, Texas,
transformed their schools into Mars colonies and their schoolyards into
futuristic Mars gardens, while young people in Baton Rouge, La., created
special dance movements depicting balance and motion problems that
would be experienced by future Mars explorers.
"The Mars Millennium project was amazing. We enhanced our
parks. We wrote symphonies. We launched rockets. The kids were on
fire with learning," said Ginger Head-Gearheart from the
Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration, who participated in the project
with the Fort Worth School District. "We are so pleased these
educational opportunities will continue to grow as the Imagine
Mars project."
Students will continue to share their projects online by uploading
artwork and other results to the Imagine Mars Web site at: http://ImagineMars.jpl.nasa.gov .
The site contains participation guides, resources for teachers, profiles of
artists, engineers, and scientists, and other interactive features.
On behalf of NASA and the National Endowment for the Arts, JPL
manages the Imagine Mars Project as part of the Mars Public Engagement
program, which seeks to educate the public about scientific discoveries
and benefits of NASA's missions to Mars. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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