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Life on Mars
Students research the feasibility of life on Mars and debate what it would need in order to sustain life. They work in teams to predict, research, infer, and explain their theory using models they build.
American Museum of Natural History
A Closer Look at Mars
A website looks at how we know so much about Mars—telescopes, robots, and spacecraft—and the search for martian life. Following the informational text are three questions that quiz pupils about possible life on Mars.
Teach Engineering
Get Me Off This Planet
What do Newton's Laws have to do with getting from Earth to Mars?The activities in this resource show how Newton's Laws work with rockets to get them into space. Background information includes facts about orbits and how orbits are used...
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Solar System Quiz
For this space science instructional activity, students complete an eight question quiz about the solar system. The quiz has multiple choice, short answer and true or false questions.
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Strange New Planet
Fourth graders gather data and simulate a Mars spacecraft mission using multi-sensory observations.
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Science Jeopardy - The Earth Sciences
The earth sciences are the focus for this Jeopardy-style review game. Categories include geology, space, scientific investigation, meteorology, and oceanography. Diagrams and pictures are involved with most of the questions, making this...
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Interplanetary Travel Guide
In groups of six, middle school space scientists create an imaginative travel brochure for attracting visitors to the planet Mars. Information must include surface features and atmospheric conditions. Although time-consuming, this is a...
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Creating Impact Craters
Sixth graders simulate the creation of impact craters on Mars.Through the creation of model surfaces, the effects of an impacting object's mass, velocity and size are determined, and the features of the resulting crater are identified.
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Martian Colony Proposals
Ninth graders design a proposal for a Martian colony to be presented to a group of their peers. They review their knowledge of Mars. Students evaluate for themselves which of their classmates proposal best fits their criteria.
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Can an Astronaut on Mars Distinguish Earth from its Moon?
Students explore the possibility of being on Mars and being able to identify the Earth. In this space lesson students complete a set of calculations to see if this is possible.
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Is There Liquid Water on Mars?
Students assess whether there is liquid water on Mars by analyzing images and data. In this planetary lesson students analyze temperature and pressure graphs and hypothesize about how water could have flowed on Mars.
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Areology-The Study of Mars
Students examine core samples from Mars and discover what they can use it to tell the history of Mars. In this core sample lesson students create and analyze their own core samples then eat them at the end.
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Searching for life
Young scholars explore the possibility of life on Mars and what that might look like. In this planetary lesson students complete several activities on looking for life on Mars.
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Avalanche on Mars!
In this mars and scaling worksheet, students use the given image to determine the dimensions of the image and the size of specific details on the image. They calculate the image scale in meters in order to determine specific measurements...
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Compare and Contrast: Hershey and Mars
Twelfth graders compare and contrast information from stories. In this similarities and differences lesson, 12th graders read about Milton Hershey and Forrest S. Mars to learn about the lives of the two men. Students complete a graphic...
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Spacesuit Design
Students analyze the conditions on Mars and design a spacesuit to help humans survive. In this space exploration lesson plan, students identify the inhospitable conditions on Mars. They work to design a spacesuit for a specific mission...
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Having a Hot Time on Mars!
In this cosmic radiation on Mars worksheet, students study a radiation map of Mars taken by the MARIE instrument on the Odyssey spacecraft. Students answer 4 questions using the radiation map and they answer questions about the exposure...
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Email From Another Planet
In this article about emails and plants worksheet, students read short descriptions about 8 planets in the solar system and then imagine they are visiting one of the planets and send an email to a family member describing their...
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The Inner Planets
In this inner planets worksheet, students will list the four inner planets on a chart. Then students will write in information for each of these planets including size and composition, atmosphere, temperatures, surface features, moons,...
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The Greening of Mars: The Changes Necessary to Sustain Life on Mars
Fifth graders discuss the currents conditions on the planet of Mars. In groups, they work together to develop a mechanism that allows for a balanced ecosystem to survive on the planet. After presenting their ideas to the class, they...
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Mars
Students debate the ethical considerations involved in colonizing and terra-forming Mars. They have a preliminary discussion and view a video clip about Mars, then break into support and oppose groups to research and prepare their...
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Path to Mars
Students compare Earth and Mars to find similarities between the two planets using given websites. They collect and download pictures of geological features of both planets from print and non-print sources. Descriptions of the...
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Postcards From Mars
Fifth graders research and explore what life would be like for human colonists on Mars. They explore various websites, read and discuss newspaper articles, develop a chart of the hardships and conditions that would be faced by colonists...
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Destination Red Planet
Students explore reasons why people are interested in exploring other planets. After reading an article, they identify developments in the mission to Mars. Using the internet, they research the history of exploring Mars and create a...