Fourth graders tackle reading, writing and arithmetic every day, but how often do they get to help NASA decide where a rover on Mars will go next?

Last December, my fourth grade students in Oakland listened intently as their hometown favorite, Bobak Ferdowsi, discussed his ongoing robotic space mission to Mars. They quickly nicknamed him “the Mohawk Guy” and sat in awe as they listened to this world-renowned engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), explain NASA’s challenge to build a rover that could effectively explore and collect data on the challenging terrain of Mars. (I found Bobak via the Nifty Fifty “Bring a Top Scientist to Your School” Program.)