As part of their Futures Fridays programme, the Lower School have been exploring careers in aeronautics and space engineering through an exciting ‘Mission to Mars’ challenge. Framing their learning around this ambitious goal has encouraged students to think like real aerospace engineers, scientists and innovators as they consider what it would take to travel to and live on ‘the Red Planet’.
The series of sessions began with a live online talk from Dr Michaela Musilova, an award-winning astrobiologist, explorer, keynote speaker and author. Dr Musilova has conducted space-related research at leading institutions around the world, including NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, among many others. Dr Musilova was also the Commander of over thirty simulated missions to the Moon and Mars, the most missions led on record. Her insights provided students with an inspiring real-world perspective as they planned their own Mission to Mars.
Dr Musilova set the girls the challenge to plan an expedition to Mars of their own and decide what their mission objectives would be, who would go, what technology would be needed and how long the expedition would last. The groups were given free rein to decide how they would present these ideas and were encouraged to be creative. We were treated to their presentations over the last fortnight and saw examples that were mini movies, idea boards, speeches and presentations. Many groups chose to unleash their creativity through model making.
The standard was very high, and much was learned about the mysterious red planet. Dr Musilova will assess the submissions over half term and select the winning group – a task that I suspect will not prove straightforward.
To celebrate the end of the challenge, the pupils were thrilled to be treated to astronaut food – delicious freeze-dried ice cream and strawberries – which caused great excitement all round.
We now look forward to next Half Term where the senior years debate lead Mr Stoten will be teaching the girls these valuable skills, centred around what I am sure will be some hot topics.
Mr Dan Curran
Head of Futures Fridays
