The End is Here

We finally finished our research! It was a great experience for me and my students. I've posted a blog post on my personal blog  (https://rippie77.wordpress.com/ ) summarizing everything. I've also posted my thoughts about the project. If you have the time, I would suggest you do the project. It was worthwhile and my students really did learn a lot. Feel free to contact me with any questions. I'm hoping our research gets posted to MSIP site.

EL FIN!

On Wednesday, May 18, we did our final presentation for the project. We presented to Don Boonstra, Sheri Boonstra, and Dr. Michael Meyer, the lead Scientist for the Mars Exploration Project. Before the beginning of the presentation, we had trouble with our headsets and hearing one another. After half an hour of stumbling through technology, we were connected. Alex Longo introduced the presentation and everyone who had worked on it. Following Alex, Adam Pohlman, and Niamh Cannon went through the background and hypothesis slides to set up the presentation and start it rolling. Following them, everyone else presented their work about their assigned Mars site. The presentation went by smoothly and we finished with comments. Dr Michael Meyer pointed out that Olivia's discovery of a mountain that collapsed between MO year 2 and MO year 4. Alex is hopeful that this could be a possible reason to cancel the 2020 launch to this site. Clayton 's discovery of Gusev crater's mini crater getting smaller could just be a difference in lighting between the two pictures. As these comments were being spoken, a couple of our students and Dr Meyer discovered a mini crater inside the crater with the lighting difference that we could have studied. Niamh likes to gloat about the fish picture she picked on our hypothesis slide as Dr Meyer said that he loved the picture and might use it in some of his future presentations. During creation of this slide Alex said that, "due to the picture having fish in it, it is not relevant to our project because we are looking for water on Mars not fish." To this Niamh replied, "Too bad" and kept the picture. At the end of the presentation the group members that did not leave were asked what they thought of the project and what they learned. Adam stated that before the project he wanted to be a surgeon but, after this experience, he is thinking of studying to be an engineer for NASA. Adam also made the comment that Mars indeed does not like to cooperate so we had to change our ideas and hypothesis. Grace learned so much more about Mars than what she was expecting, and she had a lot of fun doing it. Niamh said she learned a great deal of patience while dealing with the hypothesis due to how many times they had to rework the hypothesis. Which was a LOT.  She also mentioned how when you look out to the night sky Mars feels so far away, but as the years go on and our scientific discoveries increase, Mars just continually gets closer and closer to us. Eventually Mars will just be a step away for humanity. Being a part in that discovery is a huge bragging right to her. Ms. Rip explained how Alex's enthusiasm caused enthusiasm throughout the group and let us progress. Finally Alex stated that, "It really reinforced my beliefs about how important educating the next generation is to NASA.  They have devoted an incredible amount of time and resources to education.  What the Mars Odyssey team has done (operating spacecraft for 15 years) is incredible, and has allowed our research to take place.  We could be the generation to get to Mars; motivating students is important." With these comments our part in this story has ended but, with our ending, someone else can begin a new one.
By: Adam Pohlman and Niamh Cannon

Approaching the End

The meeting today we came together to do our last final touch ups on our final Mars imaging project. Our presentation will be on Wednesday, May 18th. Today we individually discussed our research with the help of Alex and Ms. Rip.Grace explained her information on the Hale Crater, Olivia went through and corrected my evidence on Jezero Crater, and Ann went through her process of finding frost at Phoenix Landing site. Grace found that mountain ranges on her site may have shifted over time. Olivia found a deposition, built up of sediments, in the same area around the crater rim. Ann founds evidence of frost on her site, Phoenix Landing. Clayton informed us about his research on Gusev Crater and found that there was no real evidence of rsls in the section he researched, but he found a small crater that had shifted significantly believed to be caused by wind erosion. So far, only minor changes will need to be made for our final presentation next Wednesday. After months of hard work, we will finally be prepared to finish up our project and show NASA all of our research.

Winding Down

The meeting held today was one of the last times our group will gather before presenting our final presentation; most everyone was present. Today we furthered our research on our subject and continued finalize some of the slides on the powerpoint. Many of us looked for more images to better explain our hypothesis. Adam continued to work on the hypothesis. Clayton and Will worked hard on gathering their images. Ann finished her search for the images of frost on Mars, while Niamh worked on the powerpoint. Everyone is working hard and doing their part to prepare for the final presentation!

Nearing the Finish Line

As we start the last quarter of our school year. We are beginning to wind down our research for the MSIP project. Students have continued to work on their section of the project for the final presentation. We did take a break during Easter, but now are starting up again. So far my view of our project is a bit different from the students. I find that I'm enjoying watching them come to find that researching is very different from labs and other activities we normally do in class. Their frustration is evident when they are trying to find the RSL's in photos or even changes about the RSL's. But I try to tell them that even though we have our hypothesis our research might show it to be incorrect. Future research might have to go in a different direction. I think they are all starting to see what research is all about. As we continue to finish the project, students will start blogging about what they are finding and how they viewed the whole experience. So sit back and enjoy the results.

Thanks
Ms. Rip

Continuing Research

Each student worked hard to continue their research. I (Ann) continued to look for images of frost on the surface of Mars and matching up locations while Adam worked to compose the three hypotheses into one. Everyone added more details and pictures to the final powerpoint presentation for clear explanations and accurate information.                       

3/10/2016 (Morning)

Adam and Niamh changed the question and tightened it to a more persist question. Anne is trying to match a picture she found from the Venus lander to a location on Mars and farther looking for frost on the Mars surface. Will is spreading his slides out and is enlarging the pictures and slimming down his word count on each slide. Nicholas is looking for images and reviewing our changes. For the future in our next meeting next Tuesday or Thursday we will tighten up our information and we have just started a new powerpoint that we are working on also we will add  better pictures with more detail.

Starting Research

Thursday, February 26, 2016

Starting Research

Today we started to Research the locations of where we are going to search for Reccuring Slope Lineae, clouds, frost, and any other features that would lead to possible water on Mars. We are using JMARS to find the locations of the land forms that we are looking for on Mars. We are still experimenting with JMARS still trying to find out how we get certain pictures at the proper angle we want during the right time of day. We have been instructed to find our assigned land forms to study and find the absolute location on Mars and finding out which pictures we can use for the proper research.

Intoduction to Research

Today we downloaded a program, JMARS, which will help us research all of the information we need to prove our hypothesis. JMARS shows us clear pictures of the planet Mars and can help us to discover possible sightings of liquid water on Mars. To help us understand this website better, we watched tutorials on how to navigate everything on this program. The next couple of days, we are instructed to watch the tutorials to help us on the project because JMARS is complicated to navigate. Our sophomore instructor, Alex Longo, showed us a website where we can find THEMIS images with a web map that shows us day vs night on Mars. We will use the daytime maps because we are going to look at Mars during the day. 

Presentation at last.

Today we presented our presentation to NASA. A representative from NASA was the person we were presenting to she was giving us feedback on our presentation. Alex started the presentation with the question and what we wanted to get out of this project. Then Will talked about the background of the project secondly Adam talked about our hypothesis. Thirdly Niamh talked about the importance of his project and the importance of water for life on Mars.  Fourthly Kj and Grace talked about Experimental design and Ann talked about Data and Analysis along with Caroline and Nicholas. For the last part of the presentation Olivia and Alex talked about the conclusion to our project and our presentation. Lastly she asked us questions and gave us suggestions on many parts of our project and recommended we change the question and narrow down the question from How does liquid water form on Mars? To a more specific question about what we are looking for with RSL's etc.  She also recommended that we narrow our 3 hypotheses down to one. Which lead into her next questions if we have been into Jmars and looked around and  if we have gotten information or pictures off there. She then suggested that the easiest way for us to use infrared in Jmars is to use temperature. She then complimented us and asked us if we had questions for her. Mrs. Rip and Alex talked about Jmars and pictures of Mars.

Almost There!

The morning of Wednesday February 10^th, 2016 everyone got to school early for a group meeting. This was the 2^nd to last meeting to work on our “Mars Imagining” presentation. The goal of this meeting was to figure out finishing touches that needed to be done to the PowerPoint and to work out any kinks that could cause problems when we present. During the meeting I worked with my partner, Adam Pohlman, on the introduction slides. We were done for the most part, just had a few questions to make sure all our information was good and ready for the set due date. For the most part the room was silent as everyone diligently worked on their separate parts with their designated partner(s). Having the due date just around the corner made everyone a little stressed and worried but still enthusiastic all the same. Even though the stress tangible in the room I know we will all be ready to go for the presentation date, February 11, 2016. Wish us luck! 

Welcome or Hello??

This is a bit late I know. It's been whirlwind getting everything together for the project. I would like to welcome everyone to our blog. Students at Cardinal Gibbons High School are completing this blog for their Mars Imaging Research Project. Alex Longo our lead researcher has made a proposal about RSL features and water on Mars. A bit simple, but it does say it all. We are currently proposing a research topic for the Mars Imaging Research Project and hoping it gets accepted so we can use the THEMIS camera on the Mars Orbiter. Cool huh, well we think so. Enjoy the entries and let us know what you think. But please be nice.

Thanks
Ms. Rip 

Finalizing Our Presentation

On February 9th, we continued the presentation making process. We started out with making a To-Do list about what we should add to the Powerpoint and then reviewed each slide to make sure it reflects the correct information. We talked about how we will present the Powerpoint. Questions were asked, answered, and understood so that everyone was ready to work and knew how to improve their assigned slide. I asked about what to add to the Data and Analysis slide and completed the information along with my partner Caroline. It was a really productive day and by the end of it the students got excited as Mrs. Rip noticed it was snowing outside!

Collaboration at its Best

On early Thursday morning (February 4, 2015), the Mars Imaging group met up at 7:15. Although it was early in the morning, the group really did put in some work and made some progress. In our previous meetings, we discussed and learned how to look at Images as well as relatively date them. We began to enter information on the presentation. I was involved with Experimental Design slides. I asked many question about the geography of Mars and I looked at a map with Alex. Alex and I discussed craters and important landing cites. Other members of the group were doing research and beginning to put together their slides. The meeting came to an end with much work and progress left to accomplish. We had also discussed future meetings such as the times and what was expected to have been completed by those times. It was amazing how much work we had done. We were set on the right foot with things running smoothly and everyone is having fun all thanks to Alex Longo and Ms. Rip!

And the work begins...

Last meeting, held on February 2nd, we had a very progressive meeting. For the first 20 minutes we reviewed the guidelines for the presentation and made sure that everyone had a good understanding of what needed to be completed. From there we assigned research parts to each member. Some members are working in groups of three for their research, and others in groups of two. Everyone had a lot of enthusiasm and seemed really excited for their research. I've been assigned data research which I think is a really good fit as I like working with graphs and numbers and believe that data is a very crucial part. After everyone was assigned their part, we started working on the research and power point. Everyone has been working super well with each other and our power point is off to a really great start!

In the Beginning....

Last tuesday, January 26th, we had our first meeting for our Mars Imaging Project. The students participating in the project read Alex Longo's proposal paper over the weekend and we spent the first fifteen minutes of our meeting discussing it with each other. After we were all relative sure what all the acronyms meant, we signed in to this blog and the google drive folder that is currently holding all of our information. Mrs. Ripollone passed out the "Welcome to the Mars Imaging Project" packet and from it we learned how to identify different types of geologic features on the surface of Mars. I personally found the Dust Devil Tracks interesting. It seems like someone took a fork or a knife and just started scouring the surface of the planet. Our scientific question developed out of a statement, "With the aid of the THEMIS camera, we will investigate the different phases in the formation of water on Mars." We eventually shortened it down to "How do the different states of water on Mars form." With the last few minutes left in our meeting, we were told that We will be presenting on February 11th.