Team E MSIP Project

My group came up with our final topic by trying to decide which topic would be the most interesting to research. We knew that several topics, such as dust and atmosphere, we did not want to do because there was little information about them and they would be hard topics to research. We then narrowed it down to channels, volcanoes, and craters. My group decided on volcanoes because we thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the volcanoes on Mars and on Earth.
 

My group decided on the question "How does the volcanic ash and lava affect the surface of Mars?" We thought this question was appropriate because it will take a lot of researching to find the answer and would make a good report topic.
 

Neat question! Be sure to go to the MER site and look at Spirit's results in the Columbia Hills for information on volcanic ash.
 

Our group discussed wha we needed to improve and add in our background reports. Most of us had what we needed. We couldn't discuss the classification and illustrations of our topic because the person researching that was not here.
 

Now what about your question? Are you still happy with it? Be sure you look at recent ash falls, i.e. Mt St. Helens, Pinetubo, Montserrat. I'm not sure of those spellings so you're on your own.
 

On friday in class, my group made a change to our question. We decided that our question would be "How do lava tubes affect the surface of Mars?" Our other question was too vague.
 

And that isn't? I like the lava tubes idea though. Let's see if we can do something with that. Let me think about it.
 

Today in class our group thought of a new and improved question: What is the relationship between the number of lava tubes and how old the flows are? For our experiment, we plan to take a picture of a small volcano on the surface of Mars where you can see lava tubes on either side. Our hypothosis is the larger the number of lava tubes, the older the flow is. The independent variable is going to be the number of lava tubes and the dependent variable is the age of the lava tubes. Our picture number is 20040823A.
 

I really like this one. I'm actually anxious to see if you can do this. Try to find out if you can discover how long it takes a lava tube to break through to the surface. What factors control how quickly that happens? That would help with the dating factor.
 

Our group is working on our justification essay. This weekend, I will pull together everyone's essay and make it into one. For our presentation, three of us are going to get up and do a powerpoint presentation.