Barretts students explore link to Mars project
Mary Shapiro
Of the Suburban Journals
updated: 02/24/2004 03:17 PM

Thanks to an Internet teleconference with a scientist who lives nearby, it didn't take much time for some fourth- and fifth-grade "voyagers" at Barretts Elementary School in Manchester to "visit with" the pair of robot rovers now exploring Mars.

Gayla Rothermich, musical strings specialist teacher at the Parkway district school, set up a telephone-Internet connection Feb. 19 for all fifth-graders -- but especially for nine fourth- and fifth-graders in a special "voyagers" program. Rothermich did this so that scientist Ray Arvidson, working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, could explain the rovers and their work and take questions from students.

Arvidson, a Manchester resident and parent of a former student of Rothermich, is chairman of the department of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University and is in charge of data collection from the rovers. Data is being analyzed at Washington University. Arvidson is based temporarily in California.

The nine "voyagers" students at Barretts this year are close to finishing their two-year project called "Imagine Mars/Lewis & Clark." For the students, the word Mars also stands for "Most Active Research Scientists."

"I have a passion for integrating the arts and sciences in this kind of project," Rothermich said. "Any student could apply for the group."

The children have spent every Monday after school during the last two school years with Rothermich, taking part in various activities to help them compare and contrast, using 21st-century technology, the 1804-06 expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with that of the expeditions to Mars.

Rothermich, along with Barretts librarian Jane Mues and computer resource teacher Pam VanMater and former Parkway Northeast Middle School orchestra teacher John Bourzikas, have been guiding the students, including fourth-graders Michael Erman, Tracy Matteson, Anisha Thanki, Daniel Maloney and Stefanie Shahan; and fifth-graders Mitch Meyer, Colby Addis, Patrick Burks and Colleen Croft.

The program was opened in 2002 to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders who wanted to apply and had the level of commitment to stick with the project for two years, Rothermich said. Eleven other students who started in the program now are sixth-graders at Parkway South Middle School.

Since November 2002, the students have studied literature about the two explorations, had teleconferences with NASA scientists, taken a field trip to explore "unknown land" at the Columbia Bottoms wetland along the Missouri River in North County, viewed rover models at Washington University, learned to use mapping software, heard storytellers and musicians recount the earlier expedition and honed their writing skills.

The students have created an official web site, www.marslewisandclark.com, which they regularly update with their work.

On Feb. 19, the students were able to examine the composition of the rovers and look at photos the rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, had taken on Mars, as Arvidson explained their significance and fielded about two dozen questions.

"It was cool because we got to talk and learn more about the Mars project," Michael said.

Mitch said, "The photos were really cool."

"For me, it was most interesting learning about the 'Marsberries,' or strange little round, blue rocks the rovers have found on Mars," Colby said. "I've never heard of anything like it."

Stefanie said Lewis and Clark and the Mars explorers "just knew about water and other things they wanted to find, but not much at all about where they were going."

Daniel said, "You can see how the Mars (exploration) is like Lewis and Clark, because nobody knew what they would see or what would happen."



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