M
ars’ Mary
Elizabeth Snow
has always been
passionate about
science and
technology. As a resident for the
past 24 years, she’s made a life
out of finding a way to repurpose,
reuse and recycle materials—
from creating art with recycled
materials to building models of NASA projects; everything
she does relates to S.T.E.A.M.
Snow grew up in North Canton, Ohio, and moved to
Pittsburgh to attend Slippery Rock University, graduating
magna cum laude with degrees in elementary education
and special education, with a focus on math, science and
rural urban study. She credits her college science professor
Deb DeCarlo with aiding her passion for science and
instilling the importance of teaching science to children.
Cheryl Cavallaro also taught Snow about the importance of
giving back to the community.
“Today, I’m a single mother of three kids and we live on a
100-acre farm in Mars with two cows, four pigs, 22 rabbits,
17 chickens, six dogs and six cats,” she says. “Farming has
been a part of my life since I can remember.”
In 2001, Snow took over her grandfather’s junkyard—
and named the business “Girl on the Hill.” In addition to
farming, she conducts
commercial, industrial
and residential clean-
outs as part of her
business, working with
companies all over the
United States. Snow is
also a big community
activist and is involved
heavily with her church,
the Mars Area Historical Society and the Mars New Year
committee.
“I’ve been a part of the Mars New Year committee from
the beginning,” she says. “During the first Mars New Year
celebration, I was in charge of the makers build and we
used various recycled parts to build a model of the Viking
Lander—the first lander to ever land on Mars.”
After the event, people would visit Snow’s business
to find parts and tools to make their own models, and
she began collaborating with various schools in the area
to educate students on the importance of recycling and
reusing through lessons that involved building replicas of
the lander.
“I started a group
that will focus on the
history of technology
and how we can
use it to make new,
inventive things.”
Left: Club members: Alex Park, Tim Costel,
Tatum Marks and Rosie Snow.
Below: Alex Park holds a baby turkey named
Drumstick.
“With the amount of interest I was
getting, I decided that Mars Area needs
a S.T.E.A.M. club!” she says. “I started
a group that will focus on the history
of technology and how we can use it to
make new, inventive things.”
Snow contacted the 4H
Penn State Extension to
get group sponsorship and
also enlisted the help of
Tyler Miller, a fellow 4H
graduate and cattle farmer
from Saxonburg. “Tyler is
going to be a great co-leader
to this group,” she says.
“His expertise is technology
based and he’s a huge safety
buff, so I feel fortunate to
have him on the team.”
The group—named
Mars Space Pioneers 4H
S.T.E.A.M.—is for students ages 8 through 18 who have
an interest in any of the S.T.E.A.M. fields, and anyone is
welcome to join for a $20 yearly membership fee that grants
access to all 4H clubs and activities. Additionally, Snow
plans to meet monthly, and somehow relate every lesson to
the planet Mars.
The group’s first meeting took place in April in the social
hall of Valencia Presbyterian Church, and students explored
matter and the effects temperature has on changing matter—
hypothesizing what might happen if one were to dye Easter
eggs on the planet Mars. In future meetings, Snow hopes
to discuss technology over the years and talk with students
about how things progressed—teaching them to think “out of
the box” about older items they might not be familiar with.
Long term, she hopes to work with the club to create an
entry for NASA’s Student Challenge that takes place at the
Mars New Year Celebration in June.
“One of my favorite things about working with NASA
during the Mars New Year celebration is that it doesn’t matter
your background, age or education—your ideas are always
valid,” says Snow. “I hope to instill that idea into the club’s
members in addition to teaching them how to reuse items
of old in ways that make them still valid in today’s world. If
it wasn’t for the imagination of artists and scientists—young
and old—things would not have progressed as they have.
It’s our imaginations about what can be and going beyond
ourselves that pioneers and starts anything new.”
For more information about Mars Space Pioneers 4H
S.T.E.A.M., search the club’s name on Facebook. ■
MARS AREA
❘
SUMMER 2019
15