Legends of Mars 2030

This project is a part of the Mars Millenium Project, a national Arts, Sciences, and Technology Initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, NASA, the National Endowment for the Arts, the J.Paul Getty Trust, and the White House Millenium Council.  This project challenges teams across the nation to design a community yet to be imagined on Mars.

At Echo Horizon School, sixth grade students first studied the Mars habitat and what it might take to get to and live on Mars in Science. Students made posters outlining the steps that would have to be taken to make a journey to Mars and back.  In Social Studies, they discussed the elements of their own community and the issues involved in establishing a community.  In Language Arts, students wrote expository essays describing what they imagined life would be like on Mars if a community of 100 people were to settle there in the year 2030.  In Fine Arts classes, they considered the impact of dance, music, drama, technology, and visual art on their community. They also designed mission patches in Visual Art.

Then, in Language Arts, students journeyed ahead to the year 2300 and wrote legends about what it was like when a community of earthlings first settled on Mars in the year 2030.   They wrote eight legends encompassing different issues such as missions to mars, housing, transportation, fashion, climate and geography, technology, government, and human diversity.

“Legends of Mars 2030” is an interpretation of those legends using dance, visual art, music, drama, and technology.  The legends were performed in a live show for the school community on Wednesday, June 7th at 7:00pm.

Below are links to the legends written by the students.  Links to to a page which describes how the legend was performed are included at the top of each page.  Images and video clips are also included.

•Granny’s Story, or What Happened to All the Earth Ships That Didn’t Make it to Mars  a legend which depicts the various attempts to explore Mars, is interpreted as a story quilt made in visual art.

•Robots and Technology  is interpreted as a story quilt made in visual art.

•The Legend of the Climate and Geography of Mars is interpreted as a computer animated movie.

•How Rules Came to Be on Mars is a dramatic play.

•Why We Live in Domes is interpreted through dance.

•Fashion on Mars is interpreted as a musical theatre piece.

•How Our Transportation Came To Be is interpreted as a claymation movie accompanied by narration, music, and sound effects performed by the students.

•What Next? is a legend about diversity which is interpreted through dance.

•Spread Our Wings and Fly is a song performed by the students.