Students for Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS)
Mars in Your Backyard — The project “Mars in Your Own Backyard” is a 
space-themed education program for youth in 
grades 5-12 that provides fun, interactive, 
and multi-sensory engagement activities to 
transfer knowledge of the Canadian Arctic's 
features that make it an effective planetary 
analogue environment. Students will learn 
curricular topics focused on space 
environmental science by identifying, for 
example, key features of rocks and minerals 
that may be analogous to the Moon and Mars. 
They will also learn about how to live in 
space, with curriculum topics focused on 
biology, arts, environmental science, such 
as basic life support, food production and 
radiation protection. The project will be 
developed in order to integrate technology, 
geology, geography, and STEAM subjects by 
making use of virtual reality (VR) 
technology, 3D-printing, and the Google 
Street View (360°) App in order to capture 
and share 360- gyroscopic images of 
different parts of the Arctic.