There is an entire project team behind KiwiMars. The project was made possible with the contribution of extraordinary people who belong to extraordinary organisations. They lend us their support and brains and the result is the way the project was constructed and what we hope it will deliver. We had many brainstorm meetings and ideas run. We set goals we talked about our mission, our objectives and why on Earth we are undertaking this misson to 'Mars'. We felt in the end that there are four main areas where we could contribute with our project to creating science citizens for the 21st century. We, the project team believe that there is a
Need for increasing student engagement in science
A paper called "Inspired by science" and commissioned by the Royal Society and the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor_,_ New Zealand Council for Educational Research stated in August 2010:
"Changes in society, schooling and science itself, coupled with a lack of clarity of the purpose of science education, have produced school science programmes that are not optimally meeting the needs of any of our students – neither high achievers headed for science related careers nor the majority who need science for citizenship. Solving this problem requires a long term strategy that takes into account purposes, pedagogies, assessment practices, teacher beliefs and values, resources and the wider community." (Inspired by science, A paper commissioned by the Royal Society and the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor A. Bull, J. Gilbert, H. Barwick, R. Hipkins and R. Baker, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, August 2010)
We decided that we would like to help in the building of a scientifically literate population essential for the future success of New Zealand industry. Our contribution to that would be through engaging students in science at any early age. We wanted to use space as a hook for getting them interested.
Identifying opportunities for student engagement in ongoing research can provide the link to draw students to a future in science. Our research opportunities would pertain to space and the fascination that comes from being close to it.
Another very important reason we wanted to make KiwiMars possible was to
Support the new 'Planet Earth and Beyond' curriculum
Earth and Space Science (ESS) is a new subject being introduced in 2012 for years 7-13, based on the Planet Earth and Beyond strand of the New Zealand curriculum. We are working with teachers to allow this expedition to be used for engaging students in this new subject, and to develop supporting education material that can be used in subsequent years for classwork.
In November 2011 the biggest rover ever built on Earth, Curiosity took off for Mars. It will land in August 2012. We felt that KiwiMars 2012 would be a great
Learning precursor for the Mars Science Laboratory
The expedition is an excellent prequel to future learning activities to be based on the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory Rover on Mars.
And last but not least we know that many
Space education resources are not designed for a local audience
Teachers require relevant and ongoing resources and support to link student learning to the current Science Curriculum. A lot of the learning materials currently used in space science classes are produced abroad, and lack a New Zealand 'flavour'.
We wanted to bring the Kiwi flavour in and make these resources relevant to our country. At the end of the day we should never forget that a great New Zealander, Sir William Pickering was a senior NASA luminary, heading of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Passadena for 22 years, where he pioneered the exploration of space.
To be effective, education needs inspiration.
We hope that our audience will find inspiration here, we hope they will grow up to be the citizens of the 21st centuries that we dreamed will take humanity forward.
We are looking forward to interacting with you live at the Mission Control Carter Observatory or online, during and after the expedition, to keep in touch and discuss the science and culture beyond KiwiMars 2012.
Haritina Mogosanu
Proud Project Lead
Explore this site
Commander's Log
The commander of the expedition will keep you posted with the latest progress in the preparation of the project.