To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: STEM Youth Rover Challenge

  Hi teachers,



Please register your students for the Youth Rover Challenge being sponsored
by The Mars Society.  The website is youthrover.com



Pass this info on to anyone who you think may be interested, ex: Boy/Girl
Scouts, after school programs, etc.



Here is a general overview:



The *Youth Rover Challenge* is a multi-tier robotics education development
program that is hosted, sponsored and operated by The Mars Society. The
program commenced on August 6th, 2013 to commemorate the one year
anniversary of the landing of NASA’s Curiosity Rover.

YRC is a STEM related educational effort that is designed for schools and
organizations with students or members in grades 5-12 to have the chance to
build and compete at a global level with a LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 based
robotic rover and competition arena intended to simulate the surface of
Mars. The sandbox where the robotic rover operates is intended to be
replicated so participants can operate the competition locally at your
school, home or club. Winners of the best place times will be invited to
one of 4 events held in each region.



The Rover built for the competition is pre-designed accomplish specific
experiments (tasks) similar to what Mars Rovers accomplish today on the
surface of Mars and other harsh environments on remote places on Earth. The
competition is operated on-site at your self-built sandbox and the final
operation of the field tasks are then videotaped and sent to YRC for
submission. Teams that have submitted videos that show the final operation
of the rover completing the tasks under a time limit are then ranked
against other teams.



The challenge and its operation is designed to prepare students for the The
Mars Society University Rover Challenge that has operated successfully for
the last 8 years directed by The Mars Society.

The program is lead and operated by its Program Director, Chuck McMurray,
along with Nicole Willett, the Director of Education.



http://youthrover.com/





Sincerely,

*Nicole Willett*

Science Department, Benedictine Military School

Education Director, The Mars Society

@MarsEduNicole (Twitter)

Nicole Astro Willett (Facebook)

Mars Society Education Forum | Inspiration through education
<http://education2.marssociety.org/>









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