Catasauqua Middle School students celebrated the Feb. 18 landing of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.

According to NASA, the rover was launched July 30, 2020, to collect samples and search for signs of ancient microbial life on the planet. It is equipped with a helicopter, named Ingenuity, which will test the first powered flight on Mars. The mission is expected to last at least one Mars year, which is equivalent to about 687 Earth days.

Dawn Fisher, Catasauqua Area School District’s online learning facilitator and gifted support teacher, took advantage of the historic moment. She noted Feb. 18 was a digital snow day, so she was looking for something new to keep her students engaged. She gave credit to Nick Kupchick’s mom for bringing it to her attention.

“I put it out there as a ‘can do’ assignment for my gifted students,” Fisher said. “I also shared what I was doing for any other colleague to use. I try to cross over to support my colleagues in a sort of mixing of my roles.”

Fisher encouraged her students to watch at least 20 minutes of NASA’s viewing party and to take a screenshot of the Perseverance Rover on Mars. Students were to write a paragraph about what they heard and learned and their impressions of the historic event.

“On Feb. 18, 2021, at about 4 p.m., NASA’s rover, Perseverance, landed on the planet Mars,” wrote first-grade student Zoey K. “Perseverance began its journey on July 30, 2020. This rover is the biggest one to land on Mars so far. It also has the first aircraft to be tested on Mars, which is a helicopter named Ingenuity. When the rover landed, the NASA staff was excited and began to cheer. This was a very cool moment to experience.”

Taylor Krause, a virtual sixth-grade teacher at Catasauqua Middle School, also encouraged her students to take part in the Mars landing activities.

“I followed Dawn (Fisher)’s lead and posted a question on my Google Classroom as an optional assignment in case students wanted to share something they found interesting during the livestream,” Krause said.

She also encouraged her students to use NASA’s photo booth feature as an optional assignment.

“I have learned that the rover was flying for seven months to find any signs of ancient life,” said Grace D., one of Krause’s sixth-grade students.

“When they name a rover, the rover is normally named by students,” reported Aniya C., another of Krause’s students. “But first the students take an essay on why the name should be named on the rover. And if they don’t find life on Mars, they will continue to search as much as they can, even if it’s a hard process. Decades from now, they will land another rover on Saturn’s light.”

Krause noted her class is looking forward to learning more about the Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity. She reported her class will be watching a Discovery Ed video on the mission after their current science unit.