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Students, you could name the next Mars rover!

Aug 28, 2019

In December 2008, a young student named Clara Ma submitted a name for a project NASA then called the “Mars Science Laboratory.” With a 250 word essay, Clara suggested the name “Curiosity.”

The Curiosity rover has covered over 13 miles of terrain on the Martian surface. Seven years later, the car-sized robotic explorer is the face of science on the red planet.

This July, NASA’s next rover will launch. Today, NASA opened the contest for K-12 students to name the Mars 2020 rover, in partnership with Battelle and Future Engineers.

How the contest works

Students will submit a name and a brief essay advocating for their choice. You can read the complete rules here and submit your entry on the Future Engineers student portal here:

The contest begins today and runs until November 1, 2019.

Adults can help choose the winning name

The contest is still seeking adults to help select the winning name. Judges simply need to be a U.S. resident. The expected time commitment is just five hours.

How the Mars 2020 rover will advance science

The Mars 2020 rover is the first leg of a potential Mars Sample return campaign. The new rover brings a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside in a “cache” on the surface of Mars. A future mission could return these samples to Earth.

The rover is more than 10 feet long and weighs more than 2,300 pounds. That’s around the size and weight of a very light compact car. It will pursue four science goals:

  • Looking for Habitability – Identify past environments capable of supporting microbial life
  • Seeking Biosignatures – Seek astrobiological signs of possible past microbial life in those habitable environments, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs of life over time
  • Caching Samples – Collect core rock and “soil” samples and store them on the Martian surface
  • Preparing for Humans – Test oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere

How to bring this to your classroom

On September 9 at 2 p.m. EST, Dr. Stephanie Johnson from Battelle, and Tanya Silva from Future Engineers provided a free webinar on activities to use in classrooms based around the naming competition.

We’ll also continue to publish more resources STEMx blog. Sign up here to receive our weekly updates.

By Rob Evans 01 Nov, 2023
by Heather Sherman, Director of STEMx The 2023 STEM Innovation Forum: Activating Collaborations to Advance an Inclusive STEM Workforce was a success! Through our collaboration with STEMconnector and Million Women Mentors, we convened 160 leaders from industry, government, non-profit organizations, and education institutions from all over the United States to discuss strategies and best practices to support the STEM workforce. We were honored to host a variety of dynamic speakers including: Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado Brynt Parmeter, Chief Talent Management Officer, U.S. Department of Defense Dr. Athina Kanioura, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, PepsiCo and Dr. Lisa Hinkelman, Founder and CEO of Ruling Our eXperiences (RoX). We extend our gratitude to our panelists, Learning Session speakers, and participants who joined us in Denver. Broadening participation We set out share information on trends in STEM education and workforce development, with an emphasis on broadening participation in STEM careers. Resources from sessions highlighting strategies for broadening participation are linked below: DoD STEM: Developing a STEM Workforce to Support the National Security Mission Priming the Pump for High Demand STEM Careers STEM Workforce Readiness for Teen Girls: “If She Can See It, She Can Be It” Driving change Another goal of the forum was to feature high impact strategies, programs and solutions that are driving change, and STEMx members from LASTEM , the PAST Foundation and MBRT showed how they are engaging youth and building career awareness through their workforce programs. Emerging technologies We looked towards the future to better understand how emerging technologies will change the world and the ways we must prepare STEM talent for jobs in logistics, artificial intelligence, research safety , bioenergy , and renewable technologies. Chevron‘s sponsored panel, “Cultivating the Talent to Drive the Innovation and Technologies for Ever-Cleaner Energy” was a rich discussion featuring experts from Chevron, Project Lead the Way and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Jamie Vernon, Executive Director, and CEO, Sigma Xi Society was a fantastic moderator for this discussion. Next steps We have linked event resources including videos, slide decks and collateral on the event landing page . The event photo gallery is located there as well. If you attended, please complete our 30 second event survey . Five lucky winners will be selected at random to receive a Forum water bottle! More importantly, your feedback matters to us. If you did not attend, mark your calendar for next fall - we’re looking to make next year even bigger! If you are interested in hosting in your state, or have thoughts about compelling content that we should include, please reach out to Heather Sherman .
By Rob Evans 03 Oct, 2023
Join us for The STEM Innovation Forum: Activating Collaborations to Advance an Inclusive STEM Workforce
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