Science projects presented: Can humans live on Mars?

Is Mars the best hope for the human race? Can global warming be a part of the solution instead of a problem? These are the questions asked by a group of students presenting their “Group 4 Project” earlier this semester. Navid Mousavi, Dimash Malik, Cuong Tran, Linh Nguyen, Meihan Hu, Junjie Yang researched reasons why humans cannot live on Mars and broke them down one by one to make Mars livable for the human race in the future.

The group 4 project is a collaborative activity where students from different group 4 subjects (Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Environmental Science) work together on a scientific or technological topic. The goal is for students to develop an understanding of the relationships between scientific disciplines and their influence on other areas of knowledge.

The students studying Mars worked to apply lessons learned from the effects of global warming on Earth to the atmosphere on Mars. Their plan includes melting the polar ice caps on Mars and cultivating growth in Martian soil. The students explained the human race should consider a plan to look beyond Earth. After all, we have limited resources and many environmental challenges on our planet. The group then used simulations to consider the practicality of the solutions. While the solutions presented may sound far-fetched today, students are convinced living on Mars will be “feasible in the future.”

A second group considered the issue of Deforestation. The students involved created a public service campaign to help people understand the impact this issue has on our planet. Parand Samadikalkhorani, a senior IB Year 2 student who worked on the Deforestation project, commented “The best part of the Group 4 project was learning to connect knowledge learned in the classroom to real world problems and to work together with students who have a different knowledge base toward a common goal.”