How Model Mars Works

**Check out our Prototype Here **

Middle and high school students choose a role to pursue as part of a team based in a community on Mars. They either create a new community or continue within an existing one. As part of this community, they undertake a series of collaborative inter-disciplinary journeys (as told through mini-narratives), mini-challenges, and self-generated activities, that inspire them to build, test and further develop their habitats, support for well-being, governance, community and culture, economics, and their relations with other communities on Mars and on Earth. An annual Convening provides an opportunity for all Model Martians to engage in a planetary wide challenge that requires cross-cultural consensus building and advances the Mars Commons. The main journeys and the annual convenings result in the creation of “artifacts” that are placed in the Life on Mars Museum (also being developed by a team of young people). The hands-on and simulation based activities and journeys all explicitly address facets of the real world SDGs and learning for Earth.

The Model Mars platform provides gamified learning through an experience that incorporates – rather than competes with – existing partner activities. The platform features a rich resources database, creative and lateral thinking prompt cards, access to wide-ranging expertise, and the technical infrastructure for collaboration and showcasing individual and collaborative work. In contrast to “touchpoint” initiatives, Model Mars offers a coherent and continuous learning experience that is modular in nature, and allows for tailoring in breadth and depth, and expansion over time. Model Mars operates through online, face-to-face, and eventually, immersive environments.

Communities on Mars work closely with real world Earth-based partners: schools, clubs, professional associations, space agencies and start-ups, development and sustainability organizations, STEAM and innovation educators, the cultural sector, as well as mentors and experts who can provide advice and offer guidance and support to participants.

Features

Organization

Avatar & ACTIVITIES

Thank you to our Prototype Pioneer Cohort Partners!

Hosts

Susan Murabana and Daniel Chu
Traveling Telescope, Kenya

Juliana Herbert and Thais Russomano
Space and Extreme Environment Research Center, Brazil
Innovaspace, London

Alessandra Abe Pacini
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association), Boulder, CO
Author, Girls in Space book series and Founder, inspacenow.com

Vered Cohen Barzilay
Out of the Box Science Accelerator, Tel Aviv

Frazer Swift
Museum of London, London

Josie Wood
Museum of London, London

Kate Donahue
Pitch, Berlin

Storytellers

Alessandra Abe Pacini

is an award-winning space physicist from Brazil who studies the sun, Earth’s environment and the physical processes occurring in between. She is focused on spreading quality scientific information to underrepresented groups, motivating girls in STEM and promoting gender equality in the Space Physics area through her organization inspacenow.com. Her Girls In Space books are designed to empower young girls.

Una McCormick

a New York Times bestselling science fiction author, has published more than a dozen novels and had her short fiction appear in numerous anthologies. Her 2020 Star Trek: Picard novel The Last Best Hope, became a USA Today bestseller. As creative writing professor and mentor, she is passionate about women’s writing, science fiction, and helping people find their words and voices.

Shayla Redmond

is an aerospace engineer who has a passion for science, art and space. She works as a mechanical engineer at Mercer Research Center and is affiliated with Project PoSSUM (the Project Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) as a citizen scientist and as an ambassador mentor for girls. Her non-profit, STEAM unlimited, aims make the sciences and the arts accessible to all communities, from grade school through graduation.