Dear Friends of the Mars Society:

The following curriculum K-12 and university levels, is the product of many months of work by Erv Baumann, Adrian Hon, Michael Foster, Jorge Mermoz, (Mars Arctic Base) and myself. Following the definition of curriculum (a content guideline/outline of intended subject matter to be taught at successive grade levels), what follows is as reasonable a guide as can be found anywhere for teaching about Mars. The curriculum serves as the Mars Society international guide and can be implemented on a global basis. HOW this material is taught usually is a matter of personal style, experience and daily classroom opportunities.

If we all teach the same subject matter at the same grade levels, then students in Massachusetts, New Mexico, Argentina or England will be receiving daily instruction from the same page - and teachers in these various places will have a common ground from which they can all share their experiences, teaching materials, and classroom problems. Too, the Mars education curriculum is a versatile, step-up design enabling each grade level to build upon the other. It is student-friendly and administrator-friendly. But there are yet other dimensions to the Mars Society curriculum.

As teachers and former teachers, we all know that implementing this kind of subject matter into daily classroom instruction can be a formidable task. Much of our success depends on diplomacy and on-site politics. We need to be blessed with enlightened administrators who, unfortunately, are difficult to find. If we can present a coordinated, international curriculum to school administrators, then administrators will be more willing to accept it.

Finally, it is possible for the Mars Society to make a profound impact on education in America and around the world. For the United States, we intend to institute a national educational effort that can become a pattern to be emulated in other subjects such as physics, chemistry, social studies, etc. That is our goal - a national Mars curriculum.

It can be done - it will be done - and we will do it!

Best wishes,

Tom Becker,
with Erv Baumann, Adrian Hon, Michael Foster, Jorge Mermoz