ROADS on Mars mini-challenge winners — “Search for Signs of (Past) Life” (part 1)

We are very pleased to begin announcing some of the prize-winning teams from the ROADS on Mars Student Challenge mini-challenges!

Today we’re announcing a few of the prize-winning teams of the Search for Signs of (Past) Life mini-challenge. This goal of this challenge was:

To seek out Earth analogues of “signs of past life” in the team’s local environment. By searching for microbial life in their own community, team members will begin to gain experience in the detection of terrestrial life that cannot be easily seen by the human eye.

Team members were to first seek signs of methane using a handheld detector and then take a sample of the area to review under a microscope. They took video of their explorations and posted them to social media.

Congratulations, ROADS teams!!

* Not all hubs have finished selecting their top teams for the mini-challenges, and we’ll be announcing each mini-challenge on separate days. So the list below is a partial list of the top teams for this mini-challenge. Stay tuned as more winners are announced!

Alaska

Oosik’s — a Curiosity team from Kiita Learning Community in Barrow, AK.

Arizona

Aries — an Opportunity team from Tuba City Boarding School in Tuba City, AZ.

California

AMA Bros. — a Curiosity team from Hercules High School UAVs in Hercules, CA. See their prize-winning YouTube post here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhlQRcZv2xE

DMV

  • FIRE AERO MS — an Opportunity team from FIRE – Future Innovative RIsing Engineers in Upper Marlboro, MD.
  • FIRE AERO HS — a Curiosity team from FIRE – Future Innovative Rising Engineers in Upper Marlboro, MD.

See their prize-winning Twitter posts here:

Montana

NewJersey

Millburn — a Curiosity team from Millburn High School in Millburn, NJ. See their prize-winning YouTube post here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZSey0o0Br8

NewMexico

Cuh-yotes — a Curiosity team from Roswell High School MESA in Roswell, NM. See their prize-winning YouTube post here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYDMFSG3Wkw

Oregon

Texas

South Belton Middle School — an Opportunity team from South Belton Middle School in Belton, TX. See their prize-winning Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/southbelton/videos/2935019906516733/

Washington

WSSB Explorers — a Sojourner team from Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver, WA. See their prize-winning Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/Sch4Blind/videos/1024446564601617/

Virtual

BearsInSpace — a Curiosity team from Chittenango, NY. See their prize-winning Twitter post here: https://twitter.com/CHSBearsInSpace/status/1217541708826710016

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