February 10 — Mars will likely be the next frontier for human exploration sometime this century, and ReNEW Schaumburg students are embracing an opportunity to learn more about potential future missions to visit the Red Planet.

Verizon Explorer Lab stopped by the school recently to take 5th-8th graders on a virtual trip to Mars to look for signs of life. Students also learned about building rovers, and participated in an immersive simulation for traversing the planet’s barren, mountainous terrain. They even built model-size rovers and then raced them to identity the best designs.