Animation 1: Mars Canyon Race - Story: It's time for a Stardust Space Academy tradition: the exciting annual race across Mars's rocky canyons, which happens once every Martian year (twice as long as an Earth year). Coach Pigeon is busy training and preparing the cadets, who aspire to be as good as the legendary all-time Mars Canyon Race champion, Swift Starlight. The race will span some difficult terrain that the cadets have not explored before: Valles Marineris, the red planet's grandest canyon of all. Eagle and Raven get into some serious boasting and taunting, each confident that he'll handily beat the other... which leads to a dare: why wait for the official race? They'll quietly meet after class at Valles Marineris and settle the bet to see who's faster. Without telling anyone - only Starling sees them go - they head off to do just that, which leads them both into some serious trouble. Curriculum Focus: Exploration of new things and places as a way to broaden one's understanding of the world - in this case, the different world of Mars. Interstitial 1: "Space News 2: All About Mars". Animation 2: Election - Story: Seeing an opportunity to make some positive changes at the Academy, Eagle nominates himself as Class President... only to be challenged by Robyn, who also feels she'd make an effective leader. They agree that the only fair way to decide is to hold an election, so both candidates are soon off and running. Robyn takes a thoughtful approach, analyzing what the Racers can realistically hope to change, while Eagle makes brash, absurd promises - but coasts to victory based on his popularity. Problem is, now he finds he has to actually deliver on his crazy campaign pledges - including putting a second Moon in orbit around the Earth, which leads to a near-catastrophe in space when the new "Moon" adversely affects the gravitational pull on Earth's ocean tides. Curriculum Focus: Experimentation, and the pitfalls of not asking the right questions as we attempt to prove or disprove our ideas and hypotheses. Interstitial 2: "Space Quiz 2: Gravity". Character Bio: Starling.
