Mars Colonization Letter

Eric Robinson

GWRTC 103

Professor Beck

4/30/15

Mars Colonization Letter

As long as there is a protective bubble that makes the Mars colony a recreation of a typical area on Earth, there is no reason to decorate classrooms any differently than Earth schools already do, because classrooms already show everyday objects in a happy and positive light, and happy people work better than unhappy people.

When people are happy, their workplace productivity increases, and any healthy society should want for its inhabitants to be productive. Just like we have them on Earth, the Mars colony will certainly have psychologists. Why? Because psychologists help keep people’s minds healthy and happy. Since we will have psychologists, it stands to reason that the emotional well - being of our colony’s inhabitants is important to us, so we should seize every opportunity we have to make our children happier.

One study had two groups of people, one that watched a ten-minute comedy clip and one that did not, perform menial mathematic tasks to simulate what someone working in an office may do. The group that watched the video reported a happiness level of 0.99 points higher on average (seven point scale) and performed 10.49% better (Sgroi). This is a clear illustration that people are more productive workers when they are happy, meaning the happier we can make our students the more productive they should be. Dr. Norman Rosenthal says lighting can have a big influence on our moods. Brighter lights and colors have a tendency to put people in cheerier, more humorous moods than bleak colors and dark lighting (Loffredi). Coincidentally – or not – researchers at the University of Essex in England found that colors positively affect our memory, mental agility, reaction times, and our physical strength. One group of people was exposed to bright colors while the other was exposed to dreary shades of gray. The group exposed to bright colors scored up to 25% higher in tests of mental agility. In addition, when volunteers were exposed to vibrant colors they scored 20% higher in tests of hand-eye coordination and 9% higher in tests of physical strength than when exposed to various shades of gray (Staring). It is good news, then, that the typical classroom for young kids is filled with vibrant colors. It would appear that changing anything would not only be unhelpful but possibly detrimental to our children.