Mission To Mars

Every 3rd week of June since 2015, all 140 Year 9 students at La Châtaigneraie participate in the Mission to Mars STEM project in conjunction with the EPFL’s Robotics Systems Laboratory and the Swiss Space Center. M2M is the result of over a year and a half of planning and collaboration with Ecolint’s Robotics group set up by then Director of Education Conrad Hughes and the EPFL’s Robotics Systems Laboratory managed by Professor Francesco Mondada. The Math, Science and Computer Science departments at La Châtaigneraie took the Mission to Mars concept put forward from the Ecolint Robotics group and designed a half-term project and curriculum that culminated with a final Mission at the end of the school year. During the first mission, students had to use EPFL’s Thymio robot as a rover to explore and map a crater on Mars

This year’s final Missions will take place during the 3rd week of June (3 separate mission days). Each tutor group will go through a 3 hour mission to try to repair a damaged Mars space station. Whether the final mission is a success or not, the process of getting there and the learning along the way will hopefully spark our students’ interest in Space Sciences and show them how multiple areas of knowledge and teamwork are needed to solve problems. In particular, we hope that students are encouraged to continue to study STEM subjects given the need for Scientists, Programmers and Engineers.