The Mars Academy: Kids explore Mars using a real NASA spacecraft!
Cheers. Don't wanna. Slash. Foreign. Foreign. Oh. Okay. Hello. We're so happy to be here we are going to. Learn about mars, and become explorers, during this. Week. So this week you will become. Scientists. My name is jeff marlow, and i'm a postdoctoral, scholar at harvard university. It was really, one, singular, moment that turned me into a scientist. For me it was watching a space shuttle launch. At cape canaveral, in florida. Two. One. Zero. And, liftoff. Of space shuttle atlanta. When i was finishing my phd, at caltech. I was, reflecting, on how it was a very similar story for many of my peers whether it was having a great teacher, we need people able to think complex, and subtle thoughts, and i believe a great many children have that capability, if only they're encouraged, a fun experiment. Or seeing the night sky through a telescope, for the first time. And it occurred to me that. This was a really, quick and relatively, easy way to inspire a whole generation, of scientists, but it's something that is often not happening. In much of the developing, world i realized that because of all the amazing scientists, i know and the type of research i do. That perhaps i was in a unique position, to, inspire, kids. To have this sort of experience, and love science, probably jumping the gun a little bit, talking about the geology. At the waterfall. So i gathered a few of my friends and we started, brainstorming, ways to bring. The excitement, of science to disadvantaged. Kids, in a unique way but so we're going to talk about, yeah. Water. I guess big picture kind of like, yeah, how. The landscape, forms, we came up with a plan to inspire, kids, through the power of exploration. And we headed to the city of god, in rio de janeiro brazil. To implement it. So this week you will become scientists. We know that it's impossible, to just swoop in here for a week, and change. Everything about these kids lives, but, we think we have some good ideas, of where to start, to be able to spark that journey of discovery. And hopefully. Change things for the better. Vladimir. And raised here, the international, crew. Doesn't speak portuguese. The kids do not speak english, so we need to have translators. In rio there is a big. Big gap between rich and poor and these kids they come from very poor backgrounds. When you're born and raised, here it's something that it's always, in your face. Foreign. And. I am a microbiologist. Studying. Organisms, at the bottom of the ocean. And in other crazy environments. On earth. I'm paul. Come on. I like, coffee. I'm a mars scientist, at nasa. And i, study the planets. I think the biggest challenge, is going to be, connecting with the kids. Despite the language barrier, and despite our different backgrounds. So, they probably see us as. Scientists, with, completely different, stories than theirs, coming from a different country.
With Not much in common, and, i can see how that would be a little bit. Difficult to get past. I'm carolyn. And. I. Am a geochemist. I've done quite a bit of astronomy, teaching but only at the university, level so. This project might be a little bit outside my comfort zone in particular. I work on rocks from the moon that have been brought back by astronauts. Luckily i have a brother who's 17, years younger than me and hopefully some of the skills i've gained from, helping him with his schoolwork, will help me, better be able to understand the needs of these kids. How do you guys get, information. Today, do you read books, do you, listen to teachers, how do you learn. From my song. In. Doing, science. Is a way to get information. And you will be doing this this week it's a new way to create knowledge, so we are actually going to do, science. Right here, right now the activity that we're doing, is going to teach you about, the scientific. Method, the very first thing in the scientific. Method, is to have, a question. Or to, figure out what a problem, is, and so our question. For this experiment. Is which. Sense. Are we going to respond, to the fastest. We also make, a hypothesis. Which is what we think the answer to the question is going to be i'm a little nervous, about, teaching, the kids through translators. And how. Well we're going to be able to connect with them. Who thinks that. We're gonna respond, fastest, to. Sight. But i'm really hoping that the kids are just as excited as we are to be there, and learn. Science. Start. Moon. Foreign. Um. Foreign. So. What did you guys, think what was your, experience. What what sense. Was the fastest, which one did you guys. Find a slip faster. As the ruler, experiment. Started to progress we really started to lose some attention, from the students especially, nicholas. And he was even influencing, the other kids not to pay attention, so, it was kind of a wake-up call so that's what's really actually important, about science. Right because we we have ideas, about the world around us. But we have to test it, and ask questions, to figure out, what's really going on i really started to realize, that this week is going to be really difficult, in terms of keeping these kids engaged. With the activities, that we're doing, and it's going to be, more of a challenge than we. Expected. What's. Up. Foreign. Foreign. Foreign. So it really is the classroom setting, especially, when everyone's, there. That's the challenge so. It's not going to put two. Alpha males, in this place, or three or four in our basement yeah so we just finished the first day of instruction. And, there were a lot of challenges, in the classroom. Some of the kids weren't really, paying attention, they were goofing off, so the big trial makers, or the people that don't. Get along. Because definitely, victor, and nicholas, do not, they start, to become annoying when they try to compete, with each other yeah yeah, i think, maybe. We all started talking about this like, having it in smaller, groups. For everything, as much as we possibly can, it seems like there's a lot of work we're gonna have to do a lot of adjustments, we'll have to make, going forward, it's remember her because she was very smart, she is great, she just went by the class yeah well there's sort of the question, of do we mix, the. Troublesome, boys with quiet girls, or is that just the rest of your disaster, or do we have olive, girls so they'll, come out.
I Don't know. In the classroom, nicholas, has a lot of energy. He's, pretty disruptive, and he's trying to get attention, from all of his friends. But he's really smart and i think that if we can channel some of this energy into something that's productive. Where he's bringing his classmates, along on this journey of discovery. That would be really helpful, it might be interesting to try to get some like one on engineer someone one time. So nicholas i brought you in here because. I've noticed that you've had a little bit of trouble, staying focused in class and i just wanted to talk to you about it, so i i hope we can find a way to connect with the kids because i know they're i know they respect us they're going to respect, us. As scientists. But i want i i what i really want is for them to feel like we're equals at some level that, they can envision themselves, as scientists, and maybe future, colleagues, of ours. So why do you think you're having trouble, paying attention in class. So is it like you, a lot of times want to look cool in front of your friends and and, be the one who's entertaining, them. It's our first time doing this so we're also learning, and, uh. I guess we'd like to know is there something we can do better. For next time. You know. I'm just wondering do you, do you stay out late sometimes, and is that why you're tired when. I just wanted to say i really appreciate, that, you're showing up and really. Putting in the effort to, be there, and. And be focused, and i know that's that's. Tough. Okay now we're gonna take a look at, ours. Okay so this is mars. What we're gonna do is take a tour around the planet, and talk about some of the different features on the surface, so this is valles marineris. It's the biggest canyon in the solar system. I first knew that i wanted to be a scientist, when i realized, that the stars, that i was looking at were actual, places. The grand canyon is very very big. But you could fit, seven of them. Inside. Dallas marineris. Then i knew i wanted to be a planetary, scientist, when i found out that the planets were also places that there were worlds. And. We not only could go there but we have gone there what do you think that these features, are, here. Anybody. Else. Yes these are volcanoes. And they are the biggest volcanoes, in the whole solar system. So mars is a land of. Extremes. Scientists, think there was water. But that's one of the questions we're continuing, to ask because it's not proven yet what the kids don't know yet is that they're about to take part in an amazing. In a lifetime, experiment. This is the curiosity. Rover that was developed by nasa. And, landed, about three years ago on mars. This is showing how we landed on the surface with the rover. It's called the sky crane. All of this is happening millions of kilometers, away. So we also have, uh. Five. Satellites. Orbiters, in orbit around, mars. We've already taken many pictures, of the surface, but there's also some places that have never been explored, before so what you're going to do in this program, is to choose a place. Or more than one place, and take a picture of that place for the very first time, with one of these orbiting. Spacecraft. The main thing i want the kids to take away from this experience. Is, the knowledge that there's a real. Spacecraft. At mars, exploring, right now. And that they can be a part of that. I know i understood, it. We have the we have the spacecraft, already there. What you're going to do is is. Is choose a place that you find, interesting. For more, scientific, study. And you're going to. Tell the spacecraft, to take a picture of that. Place. As the week goes on. We're going to learn more and more about mars. And by the end of the week you'll know enough about mars to pick the most interesting place that you want to take the picture of. A lot of learning happens in a classroom, which is a very passive, experience.
For A student, we want to change that. We want kids to be in charge of their own educational, experience, by pursuing, what they find interesting. By going out into the world, and learning, through. Experience. So even though the, city of god is just. 10 20 miles away from these beautiful beaches, many of the kids have never been to these areas. Today we're going to an island, where the kids are going to. Check out different ecosystems. We have a beach, we have a forest, we have an underwater, station. And this is just an opportunity, to. Put the lessons we learned yesterday, into practice. In a real and beautiful environment. Foreign. Foreign. Foreign. A. So. So the first thing um i need to get the robot, set up, so today one of the projects, is using an underwater. Robot. So it's a submersible. Rov, a remote, remotely, operated. Vehicle. One of the biggest challenges with the underwater robot, is that we built it ourselves. And so there may be things that go wrong with the robot that we have to fix on the fly. So that'll teach the kids about, engineering. The fact that, not everything goes right the first time and, you have to. Problem solve and troubleshoot, and fix the problem so first i'm going to power it up, by plugging into the usb. And make sure the batteries, are connected. Yeah we should have gotten a sound. We should have gotten a beep this could go horribly, wrong. This is not good. Okay a little nervous now. Because this should have fired up right away. Oh, found the problem. So we. Have two wires going in here they're supposed to be both, plugged in and only one of them is plugged in i've already told the kids that they're gonna get to play with a robot. And i knew as soon as i said that something was gonna go wrong with the robot. And it did. But i think i fixed it so, let's see if this. Works. Hallelujah. So here we're going to, explore, the ocean, without going there ourselves. No humans have been to mars yet but the way that we explore mars is by sending robots. So do you remember the rover that i showed yesterday, in the video. It's very similar to this. Robot right here, so with mars once you send the rover there, if anything goes wrong you can't go there and fix it, so we're going to simulate, that with the underwater, robot where we. Drop it over the side and the students control it remotely. And, if anything goes wrong, it's out there underwater, okay so i need uh. Two volunteers, so. Youtube. Okay. So be very careful, because it's uh. It's very easy to make this uh, tangled. So what you're gonna do is hold this and let out the. Line. Watching mariani, out on the boat, was. So exciting, and really fulfilling, because. As scientists, we often have a moment that opens up a whole new world of questions. For us that's very retrospective. We can think back of when that might have happened to us but to really see it, in real time, is amazing. We're going to slowly lower it over the sides so the way you're going to do that is hold.
On. This. And slowly. Let it down like. That. There. It's very difficult to see because of the murky water. Try going down, my blush. The other challenge for the underwater, robot, is that we. Don't know how clear the water is going to be, and also whether or not there's going to be any, life for them to. See. Foreign. So is this evidence for life. Yeah. Fish. My. Next we're going to the intertidal, region, this is the shoreline. The beach the place where a lot of those waves kind of come and splash on the anemones, and snails and particles. It's a very dynamic, environment, that these kids haven't really, seen before but it's also a rich place where they can collect samples, and learn to search for signs of. Life. Teaching. Teenagers. Is a big challenge, but that's in general, what is special, about these kids, is that, they have the same, potential. As one sees anywhere, else but they are given. Fewer, opportunities. To develop, that. In the first day, some of them, were not. Engaged. In. The activities. Were not showing interest, but going through the island. The kids are responding, in a fantastic, way. What i like the most about teaching mars. Academy, is the opportunity, of, breaching. The social gap, in. Rio. Getting the kids, out of the classroom, and onto the island has really, shown us that in order to be able to engage, them we're going to have to break out of this standard, classroom. Format. And in addition to that you know we've gotten to hang out with them and spend time with them and, we now have a personal, connection. Hopefully we can go back into the classroom. With this personal, connection. And continue, that momentum, forward because you know we're not, only just their teachers anymore, really they're friends. My. Nature. Hope you all had fun on the field trip we got a lot of really good stuff. Today we're going to take a look at a lot of these under a microscope, so we can see if there are. Cells, or if they're not alive. We got a lot of shells but i'm curious what people thought was the coolest. Coolest. Samples they collected. Yeah okay. Well we will show you what happened to them. It did not go well. Because they. All. Foreign. I hope the kids learned that a lot of the things that they thought were not alive like the water, like rocks. Actually have cells, all over them, and i hope that's seeing this with your naked eye through a microscope. That's a very convincing. Demonstration. That we need to take care of, of the environment, and that, life is. Everywhere. Foreign. Foreign. Foreign. Is. Were there things, that you saw, at higher magnification. That you did not expect, when you just see. With your eye. Length. In the microscope, you see things at small scale. But with other instruments, you can see things at big scale like big channels, big rivers. So we have our ingredients, for life the things that life needs right now our list. Are these are at the end of the week we will take an image of ours. And eventually. We will receive it, and the goal is to back out, to see if any of these ingredients, could have, produced the. Landscape. Thank. You. Foreign. Today we're going to talk about, not just earth and mars but our, entire solar system. So. In our solar system. The sun which we see up in the sky is in the very center of the solar system. And there are eight major planets, that orbit around the sun so what planets, have you guys, heard of. Before. So. Today we're going to make. A scale, model. Of the solar system. Keeping the kids engaged in the classroom, has been a little tough for me but i'm hoping, that, helping them build this scale model of solar system will pique their interest, the solar system, is, really really really big. But we're going to miniaturize, it, to fit, into. Outside of the school, to, do that we're going to have to do just a little bit of math, we're going to calculate, how big we need to make the planets. And the distances. Between the planets. So how about, you two.
Marty. E. Jupiter. Foreign. Foreign. Is. Now, we are going to, build our planet out of clay. I'm gonna choose colors. You can take these two if you want. Yeah. Even now we can start seeing the scale. If, we're done. It's mercury, and it's this pig. Isn't it amazing, how, tiny we are in this vast universe. Think about that. Think about, how, tiny we are, and how far away we are from different things. And how valuable. And special, it is that there's life here on earth, now that we have a more personal connection with the students it's a lot easier to engage them. Hopefully we can, use this momentum, going forward, when they're going to figure out where they want to photograph, mars, and this is why, a lot of people want to, conserve, the environment. There's, nowhere else we can go. So. Foreign. Foreign. So, today, is, our last day. Which is very sad but also very exciting, because we get to do our awesome. Activity. So what you're going to do. As a class, you're going to do exactly what the nasa mission planners do when they're planning, a future mission, you're going to choose a landing site based on what you find scientifically, interesting. And you're going to request, an image of the site. This will be a place on mars that nobody else has ever seen before. Okay so this is the camera, that you're going to use. The camera is called highrise. The reason we need this huge. Telescope. Pointed at mars to get these images, is because. We're zooming, in really really close i want the kids to take away from this that they themselves, can do science, that. Science isn't something that's reserved, for, people with fancy degrees, and bow ties, anybody with interest in nature, can go out there and study it and create new knowledge so by the end of this hour we want to have our target site. Yeah of course. All of these will be submitted to nasa, but it's nasa's choice about how to prioritize, them, so if you have a favorite place you have to tell us why it's interesting. It's very important to have a strong. Science justification. A good science case. And you can use what you've learned this week. About the ingredients, for life, habitable, environments. To find the best place on mars to explore, so what i want you to do as a group is to explore around mars. Using google mars, and i'm just here to help. But it's up to your team, to decide where you want to go, so victor i want to ask you what interests you about valles marineris. Maybe we can find the best place in valles marineris, to. Look for past water. Activity. So if you can find a place that's never been imaged before that would be really cool because then we'd be the first ones to see. It. Not many images here. This is the polar ice cap, the ice is the white stuff. And the dark area, is where there is no ice, or dust on top of the ice, because it's a slope and there's layers in the slope so i think this is a very interesting, place to look at because you can see how blurry the images that we have, are and so this will be the first image of its kind to see this place in high. Resolution. This place is also very exciting, because. Nasa has never sent, a lander or a rover, to, the polar. Ice caps, and so. Uh this is sort of. Uncharted. Territory. Most education. Has both a push element and a pull element. A push from the outside, is, your parents, encouraging, you to do well in school. A pull is, something more mysterious. It's something. That a kid wants to explore on their own it's an intrinsic, interest. In the world around you. Today. Made me think that, we're starting to reach the kids in some interesting ways.
By Pulling students, through what they find interesting, to inspire, some seed of interest that will get them out, of the more negative influences, in their. Lives. So, this is our camera. It's the most powerful, camera, ever sent to another planet. We take, beautiful, pictures. Of the surface of mars. My grandparents. Your parents. Your grandparents. They never saw images, like we have today, so what you're going to learn, in school, and what you're going to learn in the future. Is going to make us learn more about mars. So give yourselves a hand because you are the future, of space exploration. Okay, so. When we plan to take a picture, we have to work with other instruments. Aboard the spacecraft. So when you select a picture for us to take. And we look at it it has to have a good. Explanation. For science. So in other words, you can't say. Oh i want to take this picture because i think it's pretty, you have to tell me. What you want to learn, from that, picture. So. If you're ready to uh tell me, what, you want to look at, let's let's. Go. She's a bit. Shy. He. 36. Degrees. Okay. 42. Minutes. Foreign. Is, shy so. If you can dance. Again. Look at. This. It will probably, be, a month or two months, before, they actually. Get to the. Spacecraft. So you guys have been amazing. We've turned you all into scientists, i hope, as you heard it takes two. Three months to acquire the images, and we will be back, probably in october. Um, to, show you what you created, and we will. Analyze, them together. Now, the high-rise, operational, team in arizona, has to beam our requests. Up through the deep space network, from madrid. California. Or australia. To the spacecraft. Then the camera has to orient, just right to get the exact, spot that we're looking for and finally the data has to be sent back to earth and processed, into the beautiful, images that we ultimately, get to see, so this is extremely, exciting for any scientist, it's something i've never done before. And, i can't wait to see what we. Find. Now that half of mars academy has been completed, i think that we've really underestimated. The complexity. Of what we've gotten ourselves into. It's not just the translation. It's not just the, classroom, behavior, problems, but it's the magnitude. Of, what we're trying to instill, in these kids. I think we've made some pretty good adjustments, so far but, in order to make it really stick, and change, their lives we need to consolidate. What's happened i think so far it's been. A fun week for the kids it's been something different from their normal classroom, activities, but. We need to make it more than that and that's our challenge for week. Two. Welcome back to part two of mars academy, we're so happy to be here. And it's been. Five months. We sent our image requests, up to the orbiter, and it came back and we have something very exciting to show you, so we're really lucky because. All three groups got at least one image taken by highrise, which is very unusual. So. What we're gonna do now is reveal the images. Are you ready yes. See. So we're gonna start with group one which is my group. And group one here is your image of mars. In our image we found, a network of channels that were probably formed by ancient rivers on mars, and along one of the steep sides. Of one of these channels are some dark streaks which could be recent landslides, which would suggest.
Current Geologic, activity, on mars. All right my group was looking at a crater. And here is what we discovered. My group's image revealed a big crater. Near the equator, now there are lots and lots of craters on mars that happen all over the place but this one, is particularly, interesting, it has a bizarre, set. Of sinuous, polygons. That could indicate. Ice, that had liquefied. During the impact. And could still be there today, right underneath the surface. Group number three was looking at the north, polar cap. And here's the image. Close to the north pole, my group found, a beautiful, series of layers, of ice and dust that record. The past climate cycles of mars and could tell us a lot about what controls, that climate, and how it's different and similar to. Earth. All right, soon we're going to analyze the mars images more closely, but first, tomorrow, we're going out to the forest. And then on the last day we're going to use what we learned in the forest to design. Investigations. With your images. So. This is, an, image from orbit, so right now we are, up here somewhere right. So we're going to go down. Into the forest. And explore that area tomorrow. There's a lot of trees right, every little dot is a tree. Where is that. Where was the. Waterfall. Oh up here. Okay, we can go there. So you think it's a waterfall. Can we zoom in on that all right what does that look. Like. So you think it's like a lake it's possible. Okay remember, that place and we're gonna go there tomorrow. Okay so our goal tomorrow. We want to know how this area formed, rio is famous for its huge, beautiful mountains. So we're gonna. Read the landscape, and figure it out. Today we're taking the kids to the tajuka, forest, to, see if they're right about their predictions. And this is the exact same thing that mission scientists, do on mars. You start with an image from orbit. And you need to know what you're going to see on the. Ground. Forest is not only the biggest urban forest, in the world. It's also a massive, conglomeration. Of, granite. Peaks. And we see these mountains every day i mean we are from, from rio we grew up with these hills with this majestic. Hills all over, the place but if you ask the average person from rio they have no idea, what, the geology, of these peaks are they have no idea how they got there, what they're made of and what is the history. Uh, behind it, if we can. Show, these kids, a bit of the geology, of their city, what i hope is that every time that they look at these hills, they are going to. See not only a hill they are going to see a scientific. History. Okay so remember, yesterday, we were looking at satellite, images of this area, at the end. And caroline, what did you think it was. Waterfall, or lake, so you can see that it is not a lake we are in a parking lot. So, the point is that, from orbit you can't tell everything you have to go there and see so that's what we did and that's the same challenge on mars is like we only have, orbital, imagery, and you have to go there to see and it's probably quite different. So now we're gonna go to this, part these shaded. Areas. So, all of these mountains were underground. When rio was first. Formed. We're going to measure is how fast, the river, is going. What is that, all right he's running. Away. Hello. I feel like it's a cool waterfall, over there, the waterfall. So here you want to be a marine biologist. You'll simply. Wash, days. That's really cool because so. One of the reasons that i went and studied. Astronomy. And. Geochemistry. Is my mom and i used to go outside. At night when i was young and look at all the stars. And watch for shooting stars. Or, um. Look at all the look for planets, and telescopes. So it's kind of cool that your mom also inspired you to. Pursue. Science. Yeah. You do have to know math. But, you know i didn't. I. Didn't have the easiest time with math, either, i mean, my. My first year of college, actually failed my math class, so.
And I had to retake it. But even. Struggling. With that and, failing, some classes. I'm still a scientist, now so. You know it can be hard sometimes, and you have to do lots of studying but if you work. Really, hard, and you put in the time and the effort, once you actually. Do learn the science, and you get to apply it it's actually it's a lot of fun and it's fascinating, and it's a very rewarding. Career. Today. Hi. So. So welcome to the cave. So first i think we should just, stop and, listen to the sounds, that can give us a clue about, how this place. Formed. Agua. So if you imagine this happening, there's drips happening over. Millions of years it's flushing, out all the dirt. In the rock. So first the. Cave starts off as a, crack in the rock, the crack allows the water to, trickle down into it and slowly over time it, it, carves out the rock and the the crack opens wider and over time you get the, cave. So do we see any life here. Now. Yeah, so maybe there's some microscopic. Organism, so there's no trees in here no big plant life right, so why. Not. Okay but you could fit. There's enough space here for a tree right what are the ingredients, for life that we talked about last. Time. So in here there's very little light right so. The any plant that grows here has to be able to survive, with. Almost no light it sometimes, gets a little bit of light for part of the day so that's a hint about what kind of life there is in here, that, it's small because it needs very little light. Okay so we can explore a little. Bit. In the afternoon, we set aside some time for the kids to just explore, and and, wander around on their own. And i was just grinning, watching the kids. Explore the cave and crawl. Thank around. And, i noticed, a group of kids staring intently, at one of the walls of the cave, we hadn't told them to do any of this but there they were, out exploring, and investigating, and doing science. Okay so we found lichen. They're all over these little white. Very small but they're very. Efficient, organisms. It was really rewarding, for me to see that everything that we've been teaching, the students. Through this program, they've not only learned. But they've been putting to practice. And, doing on their own without me telling them to do. It. Okay, so today. The last day of mars academy. Brazil. How did you guys like the field trip yesterday. What was your favorite, part. Why was your. Favorite. Yeah so. So, that kind of process, of understanding. Looking at. A map. And then comparing, that to what it's like being there in person. That's a lot of, what, uh. Martian, scientists, do looking at images, and what you guys are going to do with your images. So now we're going to go, do experiments. To try to recreate, what we see, these. Images, reveal, corners of the universe that no one has ever looked at before. We're hoping that the kids will see something, interesting. And we want them to test, how those features might have formed, we are going to be. Trying to recreate. These. Flow features. So we're going to do an experiment, to see if it's water. Or if it's dry. We need a volunteer. If you'd asked me five years ago i would have never, thought that i would be traveling, to brazil, to teach kids in one of the poorest neighborhoods, about space science but this is one of the things in life where you. Dump in everything, you have and you work so, hard.
At A, project. And. The rewards, that you get are, better than anything you could have imagined. These are like, rocks. You're gonna try and recreate, that, flow. By putting these. Here, and having them roll. This. Dangerous. And if, you do it enough, you can see that the dark, kind of starts showing underneath. Yeah. It's close right, i love seeing nicholas get so excited about trying to reproduce. The features, in our mars image and i hope that, after our program's, done he can channel all this excitement into whatever he decides. To. Project. Between. That. Experiment. Seeing mariani, work out the solutions, to science problems was so rewarding, for me and i hope that, she can. Use the lessons, that she's learned in this program, uh. To help her in her quest to become a scientist herself, the bad sema. Foreign. All right so welcome to the polls of mars, so these layers, are in the, polar ice cast and what they show is the changing climate of mars, going between, icy, and dusty, climates. So what we're going to do here is try to recreate, these layers, in the polar cap, this experience was truly a privilege, because, it's not, every day that you get a chance, to, see kids, channel their. Innate curiosity. Into doing actual, science. I need two volunteers. And not only that but these are students, that, many people would consider. Disadvantaged. But i haven't seen that at all i've seen some of the most talented. And capable, students, in the world, so the uh. The idea or the hypothesis, we want to test, is that the, layering, that we see in the image is random. And, steven, is going to roll the dice to see how thick it's going to be in seconds, okay so go. Ahead. She's, really. Really bright she's making the best of every single. Opportunity, that is given to her, she's one of these kids that you want to take from there and then give her a fellowship, to harvard, does that look familiar. So you can see that over time. When you have a snowstorm. Or ice forming. And then dust on top of it during a dust storm it creates these layers, so if you're standing on the surface of the ice cap you you can't, see the layers underneath, right, but you planned ahead and you brought your drill. You see the layers there. So this is an experiment that you could do on mars if you were an astronaut, you could dig down. Inside the crater we have a lot of weird, curve, flow things. So we're going to try to recreate that, this is one of the most inspiring, two weeks of my life.
Because We've been able to show that exploration. Even at its highest level, is, open to anyone. That we're all, explorers. And that it's a fundamental, part of being human. We can tap into, regardless, of if you are in california. Or in rio de janeiro. Lucas really seems to love this project, and watching that excitement, bubble up, has been really. Fun. Interesting. So we saw a lot of water flow in yeah and see how it made those like swirls. So that looks a little bit. Like this stuff. Uh. All right victor is one of the, quieter kids in the class but he's also fearless. So that was probably too big. He, kept wanting to interact, and to ask questions and i think throughout this week we've, opened his eyes to, a broader, realm of possibility. Of. So the initial. Aim was to, circumvent. The traditional, educational, system, to take kids out of their comfort zone. And into the world, and, i really think that's worked we've seen that everyone's asking questions they want to know how they can learn more about, the universe, but it's really frustrating, to think that, for some of these kids the neighborhood, they grew up in, will dictate their future more than we ever can. There's so much strength. So much intelligence, so much potential. Going. Untapped. Volunteers. The kids changed, the way that i, see, the favelas. In rio, we are not talking about. Shabby houses, in a hill we are talking about actual lives. We are talking about the lives of two million people. And. These kids they are so bright they deserve so much more than what. This. Country gives them. When we're having the last day of the program, here caroline. She was always coming back to to the line she saw once and would come back to see her again, she was really into. It. Not everybody, can be a scientist. It requires, talent. But, social background, has nothing, to do, with that so. A good scientist, can come from anywhere. Foreign. My. My. So. Uh. You.
2020-08-22 05:27
