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The Curiosity Mars rover has determined that Mars soil is very similar to that found on the Hawaii Island. This is very exciting news for me as I teach at Hilo High School which is on the slopes of Mauna Kea. Students can now examine volcanic soil samples found here in Hawaii and use their understanding to build connections to the science that NASA is doing on Mars. For more information NASA has a great website.

NASA Rover

Hi Erik - Thank you for bringing this recent news from the Curiosity Rover to our attention. I teach High School Geology and this is a perfect tie-in to our current classwork on Earth's Minerals. Dorothy

Hi Erik! hey thanks for the info and links. I used Curiosity during my summer school class and since then have kinda wandered away from monitoring what's going on so I was fascinated to read your post. Thanks! I was at Mauna Kea three years ago as a participant in ALI'I and got a chance to visit Volcano National Park with Mary Kadooka of UH Manoa. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I can vividly remember the feeling and the appearance of the basalt which makes a unique connection with the Mars Scientific Lab. I don't know if you've ever done ALI'I but I've included a link in case you're interested. Thanks for the neat links and the post! JJ

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Astrobiology Laboratory Institute for Instructors (External Website)

Erik, Here's a link to the article in the local paper on finding that the soil on Mauna Kea is similar to Mars. Good picture too. http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/news/local-news/rover-finds-mauna-kea-soil.html

Erik, I finally had time for my students to make connections between the data being sent from Curiosity and the connections to how this study relates to third-graders in Hawaii. I just showed them pictures from the same article that you linked to! They were very excited as our study this quarter relates to rocks and soil. While they're not yet ready to make analytical jumps regarding the soil chemistry, they were pretty amazed that a lot of the training for robotic activities from NASA have used the island of Hawaii for training opportunities. Lori