Mission to Mars Tapestry Grant Application

Project Directors: Raymond Castillo / Ryan Odom

Total Budget: $5751.54

Summary:

            This project has the potential to be a great learning experience for the students, plus a great resource for the community. The students will combine their math and biology classes in a way never seen before. Through the guise of a planned mission to Mars, the students will discover the usefulness of various topics involving DNA, mutations and proteins, from the Biology side, and Matrices, vectors, and graph interpretation, on the math side. The project will mix a small number of content lessons and independent research, with hands-on laboratory activities, a challenging and fun competition.

            At the end of the project term, the students will have compiled enough resources to give a presentation to a panel of judges, engineers and scientists from the community, who are hypothetically looking for mission to Mars proposals. The students will also put their findings into a website, which will be available for the entire community to view. We are wishing for the students to understand what it takes to travel to and establish life on another planet. As a tertiary effect, we are hoping the students will also have a newfound respect for the life on our current planet and for the need and application of mathematics and science.

 

 

Description:

            As educators in our community, it becomes our responsibility to motivate today’s youth into the educated driving force of tomorrow. With our close proximity to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, we have an invaluable wealth of resources to stimulate the students’ imagination and learning potential. By utilizing NASA, we are able to increase the bonds of our school to the scientific community while allowing students to make connections with leading scientists and researchers. Furthermore, this will allow the students to understand the basic concepts that many of these scientists have to consider before any mission.

            By creating a plan for a mission to Mars, the students will learn the basics of a trip through space. Utilizing X-Y vectors, they will simulate space travel with a remote control blimp. They will navigate an obstacle course only being able to manipulate the direction of the blimp with perpendicular forces. In addition, they will use matrices to explore gravity. Answering questions like when to we take off? How fast does it need to go? What forces are affecting the spaceship?

            Furthermore, the students will learn what it takes for life support in space. By manipulating DNA, students will not only be able to learn about the building blocks of all life, but students will also be able to handle actual DNA and have a hands-on image of DNA. This will help students answer questions like: what does it takes for humans to survive the stresses of space travel? What does an organism need to survive? How will direct sun light affect human life? How does the DNA respond to this stress?

            A potential pitfall that may arise in this project is the motivation of students about the space program. Over the past three decades, the interest in the space program has rapidly declined. However, every student has at one time or another sat outside and counted stars dreaming about what it would be like to travel the cosmos. By maximizing the resources at the NASA program and our community, we will have consultants and mentors for the students’ projects. Furthermore, engineers from the community will judge the presentations for the students. In addition, the winning projects will have a weekend fieldtrip to the Johnson Space Center. This will allow them to meet actual astronauts and act as a reward system to increase the motivation of the students. This should overcome many of the students’ hesitancy to learn new material by rekindling the dream of space travel. Furthermore by discussing space travel with astronauts, it will help reinforce the need for a thorough education to achieve their dreams.

Rationale:

The global population has soared to almost 6.6 Billion people, and it is expected to double in the next century. At a certain point, the Earth will cease its ability to support us. Clean water will be scarce. Countries will fight over food and energy. Unfortunately, no one has been willing to spend the resources to rectify this looming problem. A case can be made that it is too far in the future to burden our scientists now.

            If we are going to have a solution prepared by the time the Earth is being taxed beyond its means, we must start by researching our plans now. One of the possible places for research would have to be an initiative to conduct testing on foreign planets. My team of student researchers has proposed a project to determine the feasibility of a trip to Mars. We will study both the logistics of getting the pioneers to Mars, and the sustainability of life there. We will study the effects of temperature and radiation, possible sources of oxygen food and fuel, while also looking into the logistics living there (gravity, weather, etc.)

            Although it is obvious that the global population is a gigantic issue that will not be tackled by a single trip to Mars, we must conduct this as a stepping stone for further ventures.

Potential Impact:

This project is meant to be an educational tool. It is pertinent that students enjoy this project, and be interested in such a way that they take it seriously. Achieving this interest is implied by the quality of the design of the project, yet we must also hold some responsibility from the teacher to choose a project, such as ours, they know the students will like. Only in this way will the most meaningful impact be achieved.

            Potentially, this project can benefit the students in ways that are only imaginable in a standard class setting. Of course, the students will learn the required math and biology concepts as the class curriculum dictates; that is definitive. Topics such as DNA, and gene mutations, as well as matrices and vectors are all covered. More importantly the students spend a considerable amount of time doing independent research regarding the requirements of space travel and extraterrestrial living. Ideally this project will serve as a model for future research projects that the students will undoubtedly encounter.

            From a purely non-curricular standpoint, this project will not only get a perspective about potential life on other planets, but students will also be able to make the connections about how these things affect our own planet. First, students will question the relevance of establishing a colony on Mars. This will ultimately lead to them questioning the quality of the planet they currently live in, which is instrumental in preserving it.

            The students will also get a chance to see what technology is at the cutting edge of space research. The depth of this is dependent on how far they want to research. They can see this as a history project about the space program, discover what the space program is designing currently, or be imaginable and propose new technology. Perhaps this renewed interest will spark a resurgence of the space program. After completion of the projects, the students will publish their findings on websites. This will provide a resource freely available, such that it will be available to the entire community. This project is expected to impact at least 2 teachers, and 20 to 80 students, 40 to 160 parents, and 10-15 volunteers from the community.

Evaluation:

In order to evaluate this project, there will be several benchmarks the students will have to achieve prior the final evaluation of their presentations. By utilizing project proposals and weekly updates, we will be able to recognize how the groups are planning on integrating the material covered in both math and science. Furthermore, by forwarding their material to their group mentors, engineers and scientists in the community, students will be able to get actual professional feedback as well as recommendations from the teachers. This will also allow us to monitor the progress of the students and assist in maintaining their motivation in their inquiries. This will ensure the class is on the same page, and that we leave no student behind in the material. Moreover, it will allow us to recognize the areas in which may need further reinforcement before the presentations.

As a final assessment, students will present their projects in front of the class, utilizing technology such as PowerPoint and iMovie to display their work, to a panel of judges from both NASA and the community. The panel using a general rubric will evaluate the students, and the experts will offer their comments on where parts of the presentation can be improved upon or where there maybe need of correction. Overall the evaluation process is more a method of monitoring students’ progress rather than enforcing the route memorization and regurgitation of material. This form of evaluation will maximize the learning potential of the students and encourage them to take an active role in their education.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Science Week 1	Introduction to project, Pick groups Plan research strategy(begin approving projects)	-Finish Approving projects -Response lab/Discuss how orgs respond to external stimuli	analyze the importance of nutrition, environmental conditions, and physical exercise on health	describe components of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and illustrate how information for specifying the traits of an organism is carried in the DNA;	DNA LAB-DNA Extractions
Math	Discussion on research that needs to be done.	Lesson I: Intro to Vectors.	Lesson II: Breaking Vectors into X and Y parameters.	Lesson III: Force vector LAb	Lesson III:Vector Lab cont. And Research Time.
Science Week 2	Computer Lab Day/Library research Day	explain replication, transcription,	Computer Lab Day/Library research Day	Discuss DNA Articles	Computer Lab Day/Library research Day
Math	SpaceShip model obstacle course.	Lesson IV: Interpreting graphs. Distance vs. Time vs Acceleration.	Lesson IV cont. Lab using CBL probe	Test: Vectors and Interpreting Graphs.	Lesson V: Intro/review to Matrices. Matrix addition and subtraction. Identity matrix.
Science Week 3	Protein Lab	Explain translation and the triplet codon to protein	Mutation Lab	identify and illustrate how changes in DNA cause mutations and evaluate the significance of these changes	Prep Day for presentations
Math	Lesson VI: Matrix multiplication. Research time	Lesson VI: Using Matrices to solve systems of equations. (graphing calculator activity)	Lesson V: Discovering gravity with parabolas. (Intro/review of linear motion)	Lesson V cont: Discovering gravity Lab. (Using matrices to solve systems, and regression on Excel)	Test: Matrices and finding gravity.
Science Week 4	Final prep day for presentations-Practice/rehersal	Presentations	Presentations	Conclusion/Discussion	Watch mission to mars
Math	Prep Day	Prep/Presentations	Presentations	Presentations/Conclusion/Discussion	Watch mission to mars

Project Calendar:

Budget:

 

 

Item	quantity	unit price	total price
Blenders	2	$176.75	$353.50
Electronic Balances	2	$158.00	$316.00
Test tubes	576	$247.68/576	$247.68
Funnel	12	$12.84/12	$12.84
Detergent	22oz	$5.65	$5.65
NaCl	2kg	$16.65	$16.65
Innoculating hoops	12	$2.30	$27.60
Cheese Clothe	6	$4.50	$27.00
Thymus (Sweet bread)	1 lbs	$5.00	$5.00
Caliorimeter	1	$36.70	$36.70
Food analysis kit	1	$41.95	$41.95
Human genome Disorders poster	1	$19.95	$19.95
Microscopes	5	$429.60	$2148.00
Force Table	6	$115.84	$695.04
RC Blimp	1	$49.99	$49.99
Size 123 Lithium battery, 3V.	10	$6.99	$69.99
Replacement Baloon	2	$11.99	$23.98
CBL 2	6	$170.97	$1025.82
CBR motion detector	6	$96.70	$580.20
Stopwatches	6	$8.00	$48.00
		total	5751.54