How do we create a habitat that will allow 5 astronauts traveling to Mars and living there for 90 days to live a healthy and happy life?
Elon Musk has laid out a timeline to begin building a colony on Mars.
To showcase the power of blending several subjects together through wonder and inquiry to allow students to better understand what is possible through the components of space travel. We will explore all the components of space travel — from building a space station, to training for our time in outer space, to meal planning to find answers to our driving question
How can humans survive on Mars? Maybe we need to take one step back and ask how we humans survive on Earth? What allows us to survive on our planet? Remember in Mars there are many challenges to consider: no oxygen, food, or readily available water; extreme cold and solar radiation and don't forget meteorites.
I am keeping this open because for the short amount of time we have we won't be able to address all projects and standards. The key here is that based on how you infuse projects and activities there are a ton of possibilities.
The focus can and should be on standards first. If LEGO EV3 can play a role to strengthen learning and engagement, then use it. But if not, then don't. It really is that simple!
Attempt your coding and robot skills on this Space Mission Mat designed to provide a classroom learning experience.
You will need to download the Space Curriculum to have access to all the challenges and resourcees
We will start with structural engineering:
How can we build and design the most sustainable living habitat on this planet?
We need to consider the following elements(and maybe more)
Use your LEGO EV3 Mindstorms Kits to design parts of our human habitat to surive.
**Feel free to use cardboard boxes, dowels, duct tape, Christmas lights, and zip ties, etc.
Students will create a novella, a choose your own adventure story, or animation about three generations of Mars colonists. Students will use Scratch to tell their story. Make the story interactive by programming your LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit to be involved in the process of the story.
This lesson from Google CS First provides some great ideas for storytelling with Scratch.
Students will create a create a Mars survival game where an expedition is stranded on Mars due to a devastating war on Earth and must survive on supplies they brought with them.
These parts are not fully developed yet, but the following ideas could be added, mixed, and infused to this project to extend or strengthen the learning involved.