This project, based at the University of Washington in Seattle and sponsored by NASA, is developing and will disseminate educational materials based on real time and retrospective Atmospheric Sciences and Space Sciences data and information. These resources will be provided to K-12 educational systems, museums and the public via the World Wide Web, with special emphasis being placed on making the resources suitable for use in science and mathematics instruction in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Local workshops and in-service events will assist teachers to further develop curricula around these products. Atmospheric Sciences resources will be tailored to display and explore the unique meteorology of the Pacific Northwest and the Puget Sound region with live data. Science, engineering, and exploration themes from the Mars Pathfinder Mission are being integrated in descriptive modules and LIVE data from the Mission will be presented when they become available in 1997.

Participating at the University of Washington are faculty, staff and students of the Atmospheric Sciences, Aeronautics/Astronautics, and Astronomy Departments, and the NASA Space Grant program. Other participants include regional and national teachers, Seattle's Pacific Science Center, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, Mars Pathfinder engineering and science team members worldwide, and businesses and corporations.

These web pages are being served by a netsite web server running on the DEC Alpha purchased for this program. Meteorological and Space Sciences educational modules are being developed. Inexpensive ISDN connectivity for schools is being provided to aid our development and to evaluate the technology for wider use. Data and software developed by the Unidata Project Center (UPC) of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) will be used for the most heavily loaded conditions, such as immediately prior to and after the Mars Pathfinder landing. Workstations have been generously provided by Digital Equipment Corporation to distribute data nationwide, and to manage and develop "Live from Mars" components.

"Live from Mars" describes some of the Mars specific components of the program. Past experience with museum exhibits, such as the "Viking View of Mars" permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, Washington, D.C., the "Traveling Mars Exhibit", and interactions with schools are being utilized in these developments.