PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 1996
EDUCATORS INVITED TO HELP PLAN 'LIVE FROM MARS' TELECASTS
Educators and students ... get your passports and become virtual
travelers to Mars!
NASA won't leave the public on the launchpad when the first two
Mars-bound spacecraft in a decade-long program of Mars
exploration blast off from Cape Canaveral, FL, this fall.
Teachers and students visiting NASA host sites across the country
will be able to follow these spacecraft to Mars and learn about
the latest scientific discoveries through a series of "electronic
field trips," designed to engage the public in international
plans to continue exploring the most Earth-like planet in the
solar system. If that isn't enough, virtual travelers will be
transported to the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997, to
see Pathfinder's landing site on an ancient flood plain known as
Ares Vallis.
It's all part of a new interactive series of telecasts, called
"Live from Mars." NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in
partnership with The Planetary Society in Pasadena and a program
called "Passport to Knowledge," is inviting teachers across the
country to attend a workshop on July 20 -- called "The Mars
Virtual Teacher Training Conference" -- to learn more about the
broadcasts and discuss plans for bringing them into classrooms
via the Internet, video conferencing and public television. The
conference will be held at NASA Headquarters, 300 E
St., S.W., Washington, D.C.
The Mars Virtual Teacher Training Conference will take place in
conjunction with a three-day celebration of the 20th anniversary
of the Viking landing on Mars. During the workshop, JPL will
introduce a new educational CD-ROM on the next two missions to
Mars, distribute classroom instruction modules to augment the
Passport to Knowledge telecasts and outline NASA's objectives and
strategies for exploring Mars over the next decade. Elementary,
middle and high school teachers may participate remotely via the
Internet and video conferencing.
"Live from Mars" will consist of four telecasts airing before and
during the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions.
Cosponsored by NASA, the National Science Foundation and public
television's K-12 Learning Services, the telecasts are part of a
recent Internet initiative which created "Passport to Knowledge,"
an innovative approach to science education using interactive
television and online computer networks to break the barriers of
time and space.
Since its inception in 1994, Passport to Knowledge has aired
several award-winning educational programs.
"Live from Antarctica" brought contemporary research on such
topics as Emperor penguins, Weddell seals, continental drift and
the dynamics
of ice sheets to classrooms all over the country. "Live from the
Stratosphere" transported students to the stratosphere aboard a
NASA jet to
learn more about the ozone hole, ultraviolet radiation and the
interaction of Earth's upper atmosphere with the solar wind.
"Live from the
Hubble Space Telescope" allowed youngsters to work with leading
astronomers in analyzing the results of Hubble telescope
observations of
Neptune and Pluto.
The first two telecasts of "Live from Mars" are tentatively
scheduled to air from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday,
Nov. 19, 1996, and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday,
April 24, 1997. A third telecast originating from JPL, home of
the Mars Pathfinder mission, is being planned for Pathfinder
landing day on July 4, 1997. The telecast, which will include the
first pictures of the Martian surface to be taken
by the spacecraft, will be followed by a fourth program to be
scheduled in the months ahead. All telecasts will be broadcast on
NASA TV and at scheduled times on public television.
For additional information on the July 20 Mars Virtual Teacher
Training Conference, contact Dr. Cheick Diarra, educational
outreach director in the Mars Exploration Program Office at JPL,
telephone (818) 354-5428; Andrea McCurdy, NASA K-12 Internet
Initiative, via e-mail to andream@quest.arc.nasa.gov; or Jan Wee,
Passport to Knowledge, via e-mail to janw@quest.arc.nasa.gov.
Updated information on the Passport to Knowledge programs is
available on the World Wide Web at http://www.quest.arc.nasa.gov.
Continually updated information on the 1996 Mars Pathfinder and
Mars Global Surveyor missions is available on the Internet at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mars.
Workshop registration forms and agendas can be obtained by
writing or calling Judy Cole, Mars symposium coordinator, Science
and
Technology Corp., 101 Research Drive, Hampton, VA, 23666,
telephone (804) 865-8721, or by sending e-mail to
cole@stcnet.com.
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