The Classroom of the Future and the Challenger Learning Center at Wheeling Jesuit University will join with other institutions from across the country to celebrate the landing of the Pathfinder spacecraft on Mars. To mark the occasion, the COTF will participate in a live interactive broadcast from 2-4 p.m. Activities at each site are designed to illustrate key principles and scientific questions Pathfinder will explore. Participants at the COTF, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Houston Museum of Natural History and Maryland Science Center in Baltimore can ask experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory questions, as well as hear their scientific explanations about the mysteries of Mars and analysis of the Pathfinder data. The event will be aired on NASA TV and local PBS stations. Local residents can also watch and participate in the broadcast as it unfolds at the Discovery Center in the Center for Educational Technologies or watch it live on the Internet.
Many parents remember the moon landing.
That event pulled our nation together. The Mars landing is an opportunity for parents and young people to join together and watch history unfold. Each activity at the COTF will address the challenges scientists faced in planning the mission to Mars. Sturm said one activity will explore the design and construction of a rover to travel over rough terrain. Participants in West Virginia Girls State were taped as they designed and built a rover.