MarsQuest Online: Using the Web to Extend the Power of a Museum Exhibit

With the advent of technologies allowing for interactive web pages, the web has become a promising environment for informal education and inquiry based investigations. MarsQuest Online is an NSF funded program to extend MarsQuest, a 5000 square foot traveling museum exhibit on Mars developed by the Space Science Institute (SSI). More than a simple virtualization of the exhibit, MarsQuest Online is designed to extend the scope of the exhibit by providing visitors with opportunities to delve deeper into Mars science at various levels of sophistication. The MarsQuest online project, a partnership between TERC, JPL, and SSI, will capitalize on the power of the web as an informal environment for interactive, inquiry-based investigations. In addition to the virtual version of the MarsQuest exhibit, the site will include a series of "Guided Inquiries" developed by TERC as well as an innovative Mars Viewer, built on JPL's in-house Mars image viewer. MarsQuest Online will provide users with an integrated, interactive environment that offers them the tools, resources, and skills they need to define and carry out their own investigations.