First we were online and we found what the colors on the flag meant. So the list is below of what the colors on our flag means. 
Black = Determination 
Red = Courage  
Blue = Freedom, Justice 
Pink = Success 

Next we looked online and we we found a website and found what the symbols on the flags mean. So the list below has what the symbols on the above flag mean.
 Triangle = Strength, Power
 Star = Energy
 Square = Balance

This is important on Mars because then we have a flag that shows our great community.

What we did is we went online and found what the symbols on the flags mean. Then we wrote it down on a sticky note. Then we went online and found out what the colors on flags mean and wrote those down on a sticky note. Then we created our flag, and wrote about what we did and what the flag means.

Passports are an official document issued to you by your government, certifying your information, identity, and citizenship to that country. We have passports to insure that we travel safely to other places around the world by protecting the person. On mars we should definitely have passports because we may not be traveling much but we should still be insured by the government of The United Republic of Lopistan. We should also have them because we need the information to defend ourselves and to protect ourselves. We made our passport below on a google doc. We made it in a drawing, using shapes and lines. We thought this was fun because we got to learn about why we have passports and the making of them.

Click on our cover to see the link to the jackolope picture.

We thought of many different motto's, but only used 6. We thought that this would be easier for the voters to pick. First of all though we had to find some ideas from other countries online. We had to find some good ones too. We all didn't want to have the worst motto in the world. We wanted a motto that shows that we are going to make progress, but the voters choose for Lope or Nothing. There also was a bunch of other ones online that didn't make sense at all to us. Then we used that inspiration to come up with Lope or Nothing, The Land of the Lopes, Escape from Earth,Progress is our Thing, Population Central, and Lope ou nada (lope or nothing in Portuguese). Then we used poll daddy to make our poll. We told everyone in our class to please go and vote. When everyone voted they got Lope or Nothing.

We need a National Anthem because it shows how we honor and appreciate having a country. It also shows that no matter how many struggles we have, we will always be able to pull through with the help of our country. Basically, it shows our appreciation.

(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Long live Lopistan! Red and true! We will always honor you! We will get through these hard times and we’ll always stay in line. Long live Lopistan red and true we will always honor you!

(Row, row, row your boat)
We love Lopistan, oh we love you so!!! Lopistan, Lopistan, Lopistan, Lopistan, we’ll never let you go!

(Lollipop)
Lopistan, Lopistan, oh Lopey Lopey Lopey Lopistan!

Anthony- This was fun to find all the lyrics to our song it was also pretty hard to think of them. I learned all about the different countries anthems. I learned a lot about this topic and It really made me think about our national anthem and other countries anthems.

Emma- I loved making the national anthem for our colony on Mars. I agree with Anthony that it was super hard to think of lyrics, but I'm happy with the ones that we have. I also learned about many of the national anthems from other countries, and the lyrics really made me think about what they meant. I also learned about how national anthems are made, and how much credit the people should get for making them.

Stefan- I really liked recording and making the lyrics it was fun. I agree with Anthony that it was kinda hard making and uploading the recording but hey at least it was fun. Even though it was hard it was worth it. If we had not made the lyrics Lopistan would not have a national anthem and also not be considered a country!   

    In our group we figured out sites that made it so that we could put faces on the coins or put faces on the bills. We would take pictures of people that wanted to be on the bills and then we took a picture of the people who wanted to be on the coins. Then we would color the background in a color so that you would just look at the person. This process also included learning about how money is in other countries and how that gave us an idea of what to put on the money. For example with the one of the picture of the girl, she asked if she could have  God bless Lopistan. And we were thinking it was a great idea because then it will actually look like other coins because on the USA coin it says in god we trust. So it was like that. So this will fix the problem because then we can pay people and buy stuff from people so that they can get money to. If we didn't have money.... Well lets just say that wouldn't be the best country.

1. Some of the engineers can work together and try to make a radar. This special radar can predict when and where the asteroids are going to hit. These people can put this radar in the middle of the village so that everyone can here it when it goes off. Here is an image of it. As you can see, the meteor transmitter sends signals into space and when a meteor is found, the signal will bounce off of the meteor and hit the meteor receiver which will make a huge sound. We think that this method is very efficient. It is even cost efficient!  

2. Another way to stop or prepare for a meteor is to destroy it. We could do this by using missiles to destroy the meteor. Now, we know how to use them on a meteor, but will it be safe. The answer is... No. It is not be safe. We can control how we hit the meteor with the missile, but we can't control where all of the pieces fly after we hit the meteor. I wouldn't suggest it, but its an idea. Here is an image.

3. The last way that we could stop a meteor from hitting is to to send a spacecraft out to space and to put a giant solar sail on the meteor. This solar sail would reflect solar radiation and gently push a meteor away from its original destination. This plan would probable be the best idea because nobody would get hurt by the pieces, and the meteor would slowly go away from Mars. The only bad thing about this plan is that is is very expensive for two reasons. The first is that the spacecraft would take a lot of money to send out. The second is that the solar sail would be very expensive to build! Otherwise, this is probably the best plan.   

We went on different websites including NASA.com. We have learned a lot about what a meteor is and what it takes to prepare and stop a meteor from hitting. We figured out about solar sails, high tech missiles that could destroy it, and the meteor radars that can tell us when a meteor will hit. We learned all about all of these equipment and what is good and bad about them. This way of learning is really good because there is no limits to the internet. We were on about 30 websites and they all helped a little bit! We took lots of steps to get to finish this blog. First, we made a Google doc and put some of our ideas there. Then we started to do this blog while others kept getting more ideas on the Google docs. When they were done, we voted on the three ways that we could use to prepare and stop a meteor from hitting. The three that we came up with was the meteor radar, the missile, and last but not least, the solar sail which most of us think is the best. We think that this way is the best because it will get the least people hurt/killed, and hopefully nobody will even get hurt! That is why we should pick this answer.

Problem: The red dust could choke you to death. It can break down our stuff, and trap us in our homes and we could eventually die.

Possible Solution: We could wear face masks

1. Cotton
   
2. Leather
   
3. Nomex
   

For our answer we think that there will be a dome around all of our stuff and put the three layers of the things listed above we will also have glass on the floor and these things so when we want to leave we put our suits on so it will be the plain suit on the outside and the the cotton on the inside and between there will be the leather and the nomex.

Here are the people who we might need to solve this problem:

Emma- Pharmacist: We will need Emma because she can provide us with the medicine we need. She will also know how to make it, and be able to give it to the people who need it.

Charlotte- Chemist: We will need Charlotte for making medicine and being able to teach others how to make it.

Sadie-Adventurer: She will be able to look for any resources we need for the medicine.

Anthony- Scientist: We will need Anthony because he can study about how each medicine is needed and he can learn about what ingredients are needed to be made. He can also experiment with medicines that we don't know work.

Jill- Doctor: Jill will know what medicine each sick person will need to help them get better and she will know what to tell the Pharmacist to give to each person and the amount they will need.  

Emily- Dentist: We will need Emily because she will know what medicine is key for any problem in the mouth.

Annie-Farmer: Annie will be important because she can help us grow the ingredients for each medicine.

Julia- Miner: Julia will be important for this job because a lot of medicine is made of minerals and Julia studies minerals, she will know what minerals we should use.


Possible Solutions:

We could experiment with things on Mars, and try to find out if there are any ingredients that we can use. We will need Sadie and Anthony for this.

We need people that are talented enough to make new medicine. We will need Emma and Charlotte.

We will need people that know how to treat people with the medicine, so they don’t use it or overuse it, so we don’t run out of it again.

If people don’t find the ingredients we need on Mars, we will need people to grow the ingredients in medicine. We will need Annie for this.

We can train people to be able to make small effective medicines that will not be used in many douces, this will save the materials that we are running out of so we can use them longer and for different reasons. We can use Charlotte to help train people to know and how to make them.

We will need people that know what medicines are most popular, so they will know what medicines we will need to make quickest. We will need Emily and Jill and Emma for this.

We learned that the temperature on Mars is usually around -67℉ which is very cold! Another thing that we learned was that if the doors to our houses or any of the buildings get frozen then we need another way out so if this happens then we will have a plan. We also learned that the warmest soil temperature on Mars is 81℉ so there is a possibility that you can plant stuff on Mars without it dying because of the cold weather. Even though the average temperature is -67℉ there is warm soil on the planet. I don't know if the plants would grow though because the air is cold as well.

Space suits are one of the most important pieces of equipment while in space and on mars.  We'll need them while we are both in space and when we are on mars.  Spacesuits are to help us breath in space and on planets and moons, they also help protect us from the freezing temperatures that outer space will throw at us.  Now there is no actual way to solve the problem being presented to us but here are some ways we can ensure safety to the best of our ability.

1. Before exiting the spacecraft/living quarters, make sure that all of the oxygen tanks are full.
2. You also need to make sure that the warning computer is working and active.
3. Also just in case of a sand storms make sure to always have the communication system with you.
4. You'll also need to test out that the temperature control valve is working before you exit too.

So basically test out your equipment before you leave the safety of the spacecraft and venture into the unknown. 
So remember something as simple as making sure your oxygen tank is full can mean the difference between life and death.

We learned a lot like what was in spacesuits for example, water tanks and drink bags are in them and I never knew that before. There is also a lot of other complicated components that are included in the spacesuits that I would have never guessed. That is why it is important to have the proper spacesuit for the right job.  When we first started to research about this problem we knew nothing about it and didn't know what to do, but when we finished we knew so much that I never knew about it before.