Your role is not to give the answer. It is to create the conditions in which one can be built.

When an answer is known, a teacher can explain the route.

When the problem is open, the task becomes different:

How do I help students learn without doing their thinking for them?

That is where mentoring begins.

Mentoring does not replace teaching.

It describes a pedagogical role within the Mars Challenge experience.

The same educator can teach disciplinary content in one context and facilitate an open challenge in another.

Mentors:

ask productive questions;

provide constructive feedback;

facilitate reflection;

encourage iteration;

support interdisciplinary collaboration;

care for emotional and ethical wellbeing.

Their role is active.

But measured.

The mentor is not an author or co-author.

They do not:

develop the project for the team;

define technical solutions;

code for participants;

design or build prototypes on their behalf;

control the pitch;

choose the final solution.

Guidance must not become substitution.

Mars Challenge includes structured teacher development.

Its purpose is to strengthen the pedagogical judgement needed to design, support and evaluate learning centred on real challenges.

It is not intended to turn every teacher into a methodology specialist.

It prepares educators to accompany learning differently.

These four missions are teacher development modules; they are distinct from the participation missions of the 2027 edition.

Mission 1 — Enter the Mission

Understand purpose, framework and role.

Mission 2 — Accompany the Student Journey

Understand what teams experience.

Mission 3 — Accompany with Judgement

Work with ethics, authorship, AI, inclusion and wellbeing.

Mission 4 — Accompany without Overload

Integrate feedback and assessment sustainably.

Teachers experience an approach coherent with the one they will later facilitate.

Experiential learning should not be taught only through passive instruction.

Pedagogical accompaniment.

Challenge- and project-based learning.

Formative feedback.

Applied research.

Contextual innovation.

Responsible AI use.

Wellbeing.

Inclusion.

Student authorship.

The common thread is pedagogical judgement.

AI can generate answers.

Educators help learners ask:

Is it correct?

Has it been verified?

What is missing?

What assumption is hidden?

Who is accountable for the decision?

Technology can support learning.

It should not replace the learner's critical and creative process.

“What evidence supports that decision?”

opens thinking.

“Use this solution.”

closes it.

“What would happen if this assumption were wrong?”

opens thinking.

“This is what I would do.”

may replace it.

Mentoring requires knowing the difference.

Pressure.

Conflict.

Criticism.

Failure.

Uncertainty.

AI.

Diversity.

Inclusion.

Wellbeing.

These are not separate from learning.

They are part of the conditions in which learning happens.

The training described in the 2026 reference is designed to be:

self-directed;

flexible;

asynchronous;

modular.

The internal framework described in the 2026 reference describes approximately 10 hours of progressive training.

One complete mission focuses specifically on mentoring without overload.

Confirm the duration, format and sessions planned in the current implementation for your country or institution.

The 2026 Rules contemplate:

teachers designated by participating institutions;

mentors and educational accompaniers;

institutional ambassadors and coordinators.

Depending on implementation, training may be required for some roles or recommended as good practice.

Depending on the route and fulfilment of criteria, participation may result in:

participation records;

Mission Mentor or other internal recognition;

certification from Mars Challenge and/or Virtual Educa where applicable.

These do not automatically constitute formal academic accreditation.

They also do not guarantee competitive outcomes.

In 2026, a voluntary mentor route exists for certain national and international team-recomposition stages.

It is activated through a specific call.

Mentors accompanying a selected national representative team may also continue into later stages under the applicable Rules.

Across 2023–2025:

730+ mentors and teachers

are documented alongside:

2,000+ young people

and

240+ documented teams/projects.

These are participation metrics, not causal proof of teaching impact.

School.

University.

Vocational centre.

Territory.

Country.

Organisation.

The specific mentor experience depends on how Mars Challenge is activated in that context.