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April 27-29, 2006
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ



Undergraduate geoscience courses are typically taught using only terrestrial examples. Integrating examples from other planets into commonly taught undergraduate courses, however, provides a unique and timely opportunity for students to test their observation and data analysis skills in a new planetary environment and to learn how study of other planets can help illuminate our understanding of the Earth. The wealth of recent data from Mars on everything from geophysics to climate change provides an opportunity to expand examples beyond the terrestrial realm in undergraduate courses ranging from hydrogeology to petrology, from structural geology to sedimentary geology.

This workshop was a collaborative effort that brought together leaders in planetary research and geoscience education to

  • share existing ways of integrating discoveries from Mars into commonly taught undergraduate geoscience courses
  • examine the current breadth of Mars data and explore the possibilities for developing additional ways of integrating Mars data into undergraduate courses
  • develop a plan for disseminating data-based Mars examples and promoting integration of Mars examples into a variety of undergraduate courses.

Iron meteorite in Meridiani Planum

Conveners and Planning Team:

  • Barbara Tewksbury (Hamilton College)
  • Tracy Gregg (SUNY at Buffalo)
  • Eric Grosfils (Pomona College)
  • Philip Christensen (Arizona State University)
  • Ronald Greeley (Arizona State University)


This workshop was one of the 2005-06 On the Cutting Edge Emerging Theme Workshops, which were designed to move critical ideas and concepts into the main-stream of geoscience education.

This workshop was part of the professional development program On the Cutting Edge for current and future geoscience faculty, sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with funding provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation-Division of Undergraduate Education . We are part of the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE).


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