The Mars Lab
Wild idea:
Brought into this multi‑million dollar federally funded project specifically to ‘productise’ and ‘gamify’ the learning programs for MAAS Mars Lab.
Area:
Education, Project-based Learning
“It made we want to come to class, instead of just saying ‘oh we have science now’, it was like ‘oh we have science now, let’s go!”
Details:
We were contracted to this multi‑million dollar federally funded project specifically to ‘productise’ and ‘gamify’ the learning programs. The Mars Lab is a high-tech resource that engages young people in the search for life on Mars and the technologies that enable that search. Students login over the internet to control real robotic rovers across a recreated Martian surface using onboard scientific instruments to search for evidence of life — just like NASA.
Working with a small project team, our role in the project included design and production of learning materials, design of web interfaces used to control the rovers, interface development for a 3D mapping application to allow students to prepare and track their investigations and hosting video conferences between school students and NASA scientists. The Mars Lab is now a permanent program at the MAAS.
Read the final project report for the Department Of Education (PDF).