It is not the rover making discoveries ...

When reading about the Mars rover landing, I came across this statement that really jumped out at me:

During the interview, Grunsfeld walks through the “seven minutes of terror” and makes a “bold prediction,” saying, “the Curiosity rover is going to discover nothing on Mars. ... It’s not going to discover a thing.” But, continued Grunsfeld, “people on Earth, the scientists on Earth are going to discover all kinds of incredible things. We’re just going to love it. It’s going to be two years of amazing science.”

~from the Washington Post's Mars rover Curiosity landing: Where to watch and what you'll see

Notice what NASA lead scientist John Grunsfeld says:

• “the Curiosity rover is going to discover nothing on Mars. ... It’s not going to discover a thing. "
• “people on Earth, the scientists on Earth are going to discover all kinds of incredible things. ..."

The rover itself, named Curiosity (which I think is such a great name for it), is a machine and not going to discover anything .... because it is just a tool.

It is the people who are using the tools to make all kinds of discoveries ...

In my mind, that correlates so well with what we say about technology in the classroom ...

Just putting a machine or tool in a classroom is not going to have an impact on the students in that classroom ...

It is the teacher effectively using the tools in his or her classroom that will have an impact on student learning ...



For even more information about the Mars Curiosity Rover landing, see this previous post: Mars, Here We Come!