Marcia L. Gerencser
So here we are on Mars. We are living in a house on a new planet. The temperature is close to that of Earth’s. There is an ozone layer and an atmosphere that houses clouds and holds heat. The sky is also blue. The rivers are filled with aquatic life and the rivers and other water bodies are surrounded by fauna that is edible and medicinal. There are trees for beauty and trees for shade and they also make up the forest which is the home for many animals.
How did we get here? Students learned how to create and maintain a balanced ecosystem. They also learned how to keep it safe. They know how to reduce, reuse and recycle trash. Pesticides are familiar to them and the dangers they impose. There will be alternatives to controlling pests that are not dangerous to man, animal or the environment.
The Solar System was part of the fourth grade science curriculum and children entered into this unit with a basic knowledge of why we could not live on Mars. So basically, they are taking knowledge from the past, newly learned knowledge and relating it to a problem that needs to be solved. It is not 100% scientifically correct, but the children learned to work in a cooperative group to solve a problem. I know that they will feel much academic success from such an attempt. Even though this generation of children will most likely not be settling Mars for years to come, they will have learned about their own planet and how to save it from vanishing as a viable habitat for mankind.