The Great Light Racers Championship is Spaceward's current K-12 project, based on a lunar-ice search scenario.
The Light racers, however, emphasizes technology, whereas the Mars Barn concentrates on Solar System science and exploration.
The Mars barn is also a remote "from the classroom" program, compared with Light Racers' more traditional compete-on-site model.
The Mars Barn is the ultimate teaching tool about Mars and other solar system destinations.
By learning through the eyes of a rover and the oversight of an "orbiter", kids can take part in exciting exploration scenarios, while remaining at their desks in school.
For each session, the classroom is transformed into a "mission control", and the student control the rover as a team, searching for clues to solve the question of the day.
Solar System Destinations is the K-12 educational component of MarsScape. It aims to teach kids about Mars and other solar system destinations, from either a scientific or exploration point of view. In much the same way as with the MLS, schools embark on "missions" while controlling robots on the simulated environments.
The sessions are guided by a live host (using a WebEx connection), but the main theme is that of controlling a robot in the remote environments. Schools register and schedule classes in advance. The sessions are designed for one classroom at a time, and allow all kids to perform some activity at MarsScape.
All that is required of the schools is a broadband, web enabled classroom. We will send the schools a preparation kit in advance, and some follow-up material. There will be several "journeys" that classes can take.
We intend to start with a moon/Mars oriented program, but we will later expand the curriculum to include anything and everything space related. From the school's point of view, this experience can be richer than visiting a science museum, for a much lower cost, and with no interruption of their class schedule.
The Telerobotics Explorer is a "lighter" version of the telerobotics challenge, aimed at grades 9-12 with advanced science curriculums.
Instead of attempting very difficult tasks, the robots designed by the teams compete in standard races - an obstacle course, a treasure hunt, etc. Telerobotics Explorer does not have a lander component, and our staff will assist the teams rather than be strictly "hands off" observers as in the case of MLS. We may assist schools by providing skeleton robot designs.
© The Spaceward Foundation 2008 - www.spaceward.org - Mountain View, CA