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.