Inspiring students to discover opportunities through science and exploration
Navegando o poder da exploração espacial e curiosidade científica em promover sede de conhecimento e transformação social. Four scientists and a filmmaker will spend two weeks in the City of God favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, bringing NASA science – through hands-on experiments and field trips to the Brazilian rainfo
rest – to a group of kids who would otherwise never be exposed to it. Ultimately, the students will join the front lines of exploration as they direct a NASA mission orbiting the Red Planet, expanding our knowledge of the universe and unlocking their own potential in the process. The project was covered in the Wired magazine:
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/favela-students-control-mars-mission/
Este projeto visa despertar o interesse pela ciência trazendo o entusiasmo das missões a Marte para estudantes da Cidade de Deus. Para conhecer melhor o projeto, assista ao video aqui (Para legendas em português, clique em CC no canto inferior direito do vídeo e escolha "português".) https://vimeo.com/117783296
Leia também a matéria que saiu n' O Globo sobre o projeto:
http://oglobo.globo.com/sociedade/tecnologia/estudantes-da-comunidade-cidade-de-deus-controlarao-missao-marte-15522734
The gulf between NASA’s neon hued control rooms and the listing corrugated iron shacks of the global poor is vast, yet they are connected by the most essential of human traits: exploration and a thirst for the unknown. This project will bridge that gulf, bringing the forefront of exploration to one of the world’s most economically disadvantaged communities and providing a vibrant reminder of the possibilities of human endeavor in the process. In the summer of 2015, our five-person team will travel to Rio de Janeiro and work with local teachers at the Developing Minds Foundation's school in the City of God favela. The Foundation has long been recognized for the effectiveness of its technology-based facility, which offers lessons to over 700 students per year. We will supplement the curriculum with a week of hands-on lessons centered around habitability, our place in the universe, and the search for life beyond Earth. We aim to instill a sense of environmental stewardship in the continued exploration of our planet’s resources (e.g., the Brazilian rainforest and ocean ecosystems) as well as worlds beyond. With this goal in mind, we will take the class on field trips to the nearby rainforest – a rare opportunity for the students, despite their proximity to this natural wonder – and the Brazilian coast, where we will explore the underwater realm with an OpenROV submersible. Back in the classroom and around the favela, we will provide context on Mars and pursue connections between environmental evolution on the Red Planet and the remarkable biology of Brazil’s rainforests. Armed with this contextual knowledge and their own curiosity, students will spend the final two days developing an experimental objective for NASA’s HiRISE camera, which will be sent to mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. HiRISE is one of the most advanced and productive scientific instruments currently exploring our Solar System: with the spatial resolution of a dinner plate, it can spot boulder-strewn streambeds, stunning dune fields, and even the rovers wheeling around Mars’ surface. During its 8-year mission, HiRISE has produced some of the most beautiful and scientifically valuable data ever collected from the Red Planet. Yet only a tiny fraction of the planet has been imaged, and there’s a lot left to discover. By directing the camera to an unseen region of Mars, the City of God students will make a real and lasting contribution to space exploration. We will return to the school once the image has been acquired to show the students what they will have accomplished in exposing a corner of the universe never before seen by human eyes. Cutting edge exploration and the wildly exciting questions it engages should not be the exclusive provenance of the developed world, and this project will make Mars exploration a truly human-wide pursuit.More importantly, the program will inspire children on a lifelong journey of discovery that will benefit their home communities in unpredictable and immeasurable ways. With this in mind, we will supply the classroom with relevant math and science textbooks, offering eager learners appropriate resources. We will also share some powerful web-based tools with local teachers, so they can continue discussions on the themes of scientific exploration with other students for years to come. In consultation with economic development experts, we will track students’ long-term progress to establish the program’s efficacy. Ultimately, the most important indicator of a student’s future academic success is her desire to learn, and we believe we can instill a life-changing thirst for knowledge in a fiscally efficient manner by helping students participate in the far reaches of humanity’s explorations. The Film
Throughout the educational and exploratory activities described above, we will document proceedings and produce a film sharing the students’ personal journeys of discovery. In this documentary, we hope to build a rare and intimate portrait of students living in Brazil’s City of God favela, from their lives at home, to their discoveries in the classroom; from their relationships with other students, to their experiences during hands-on field trips. On a shoestring budget, we will spend time interviewing and filming in the classroom, on class field trips, and with the students’ families in their homes. Ultimately, we will provide a character-driven portrayal of the students’ daily lives and their personal journeys from the favela to the wind-swept plains of another planet. We think it’s important to make a documentary film about this educational outreach project so that we can share the lessons learned from this experience with other children, schools, and people around the world. Our Goal
To make this all happen, we are seeking $30,000 of crowd-sourced funding, which would be used to support local school staff, educational material costs, logistical arrangements for the students during our field trip and other lessons, team travel, and film production costs. Fortunately, several priceless assets are already in place: the scientific and educational expertise of our team, access to NASA’s HiRISE camera, and strong buy-in from the well-regarded Developing Minds Foundation NGO, which uses "educational programs as a way to break the cycle of poverty, hopelessness and violence in areas that are deeply impoverished and affected by conflict." With full funding, we anticipate a finished documentary by January 2016. Any additional funding beyond our goal will be directed toward future exploration-based projects in disadvantaged communities around the world.
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Links:
Promo video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCxu_1dIDsY
Story in "O Globo" (The Globe), one of Rio's leading newspapers:
http://oglobo.globo.com/sociedade/tecnologia/estudantes-da-comunidade-cidade-de-deus-controlarao-missao-marte-15522734
Story at Veja, Brazilians leading weekly newsletter:
http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/ciencia/cidade-de-deus-participara-de-projeto-para-explorar-marte/
Op-ed for the Toronto-based independent news website The Mark News:
http://www.themarknews.com/2015/04/09/reach-for-the-stars-favela-children-to-control-nasa-mars-mission/
Blog post by the Planetary Society:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/0321-mars-academy.html
Story on Wired:
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/favela-students-control-mars-mission/
Original campaign on kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/807093717/mars-academy/description
Second campaign, Brazilians, on vakinha:
https://www.vakinha.com.br/vaquinha/mars-academy
Interview on Science in Movement TV show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1291&v=dHUfCWs_v4w
Write up after interview in Science in Movement:
http://tvcienciaemmovimento.blogspot.com.br/2015/06/cm-mars-academy-em-27jun2015.html
Interview on Science in Movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUAQpWCrjuU
Write up after interview in Science in Movement:
http://tvcienciaemmovimento.blogspot.com.br/2015/06/cm-mars-academy-em-27jun2015.html
Google Hangout on Science and Astronomy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq532uN1IZA
