Interviewer: Alicia Nichols

Project: University of Houston

University of Houston, Main Campus physics and electrical and computer engineering professor Dr. Edgar A. Bering, III, who also serves as the chairman of the Mars Rover Celebration, and the principle investigator for the Mars Rover grant at the University of Houston, discusses the Mars Rover Model Celebration. Also present was Ms. Laura Jacobs, a Ph.D. candidate in educational psychology at the University of Houston, and day-director of the 2014 Mars Rover Celebration event on the University of Houston campus. Dr. Bering explains the program itself, designed for third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, that includes a series of 5-E lesson plans and culminates in the students selecting a Mars issue that they would like to study, and creating a mock-up Mars rover to help them answer their question. Dr. Bering details the history of the Mars Rover Celebration at the University of Houston, from about 2002 to the present. Dr. Bering became interested in creating a program for elementary and middle school students after his children studied and created Mars rovers in their elementary school classes as part of the city of Houston‟s SPARK Park Project, around 1993. Dr. Bering discusses how he adapted the materials used by his children‟s fourth grade teacher and created the Mars Rover Model Celebration event held on the University of Houston campus to coincide with the 2002 World Space Congress, which was hosted in Houston. Dr. Bering also discusses the importance of space exploration, K-12 education, the education of elementary and middle school teachers, and the importance of educating students in science and engineering. Events like the New Millennium Program (NMP) and the missions of various Mars Rovers (such as Curiosity) are also discussed.