The purpose of this lesson is to teach the students about how a spacecraft gets from the surface of the Earth to Mars. The lesson first investigates rockets and how they are able to get us into space. Finally, the nature of an orbit is discussed as well as how orbits enable us to get from planet to planet specifically from Earth to Mars.

Students use water balloons and a length of string to understand how the force of gravity between two objects and the velocity of a spacecraft can balance to form an orbit. They see that when the velocity becomes too great for gravity to hold the spacecraft in orbit, the object escapes the orbit and travels further away from the planet.

Learners will use a variety of resources to conduct research to try to find answers to the questions they generated in previous activities. They continue to work the way scientists do by communicating what they learned from their research about Mars and present questions they still have and that others might want to think about researching in the future. This is activity 8 of 9 in Mars and Earth: Science Learning Activities for After School.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The first human spaceflight to Mars is expected to take place sometime within the next decade, and its success will be highly dependent on the health of its crew. The human microbiome, or the community of microorganisms inhabiting the body, has critical effects on human health, but how the journey to another planet will affect it has yet to be determined. During a space mission, the crew will experience microgravity, increased cosmic radiation, isolation, food limitations, and other stressors. While data from simulations and the International Space Station suggest that the human microbiome may be resilient to these conditions, frequent monitoring during the spaceflight will still be necessary to safeguard crew health. Microbiome perturbations will need to be actively prevented, and the establishment of a computer-based warning system will allow microbe-related disease to be quickly detected..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students use scaling from real-world data to obtain an idea of the immense size of Mars in relation to the Earth and the Moon, as well as the distances between them. Students calculate dimensions of the scaled versions of the planets, and then use balloons to represent their relative sizes and locations.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The Mars500 mission was a psychosocial isolation experiment designed to study the effects of long-term space travel on humans, but it also presented a unique opportunity to study human microbiota. Our microbiota play key roles in our health and are thus important subjects of study. However, it is often difficult to distinguish between resident and transient microbes and to control outside variables, but in the Mars500 mission the subjects were isolated for 520 days while on a standardized diet. Samples were collected during and after the isolation period, and researchers assessed the diversity of their salivary microbiota. While time, diet, and individual subject differences each had a significant impact on microbiota variation, the individual differences between subjects had the greatest influence..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this Explore on Your Own activity, students will watch a short video about landing spacecraft on Mars and then answer some questions.

This lesson is designed to introduce the concept of nanotechnology as part of the Biology Characteristics of Life coursework.  The lesson focuses on students researching the timeline of life on Earth and creating a timeline for life on Mars including exploration with nanotechnology.

Join in as we look closely at landers and rovers built by engineers to help us better understand Mars!

This lesson will discuss the details for a possible future manned mission to Mars. The human risks are discussed and evaluated to minimize danger to astronauts. A specialized launch schedule is provided and the different professions of the crew are discussed. Once on the surface, the crew's activities and living area will be covered, as well as how they will make enough fuel to make it off the Red Planet and return home.

The Mars Education lesson plans section is here to serve as a resource for educators, grades K-12 to download and utilize in formal classroom settings.
For questions on the Mars Education Lessons please contact us.
All of the Mars Education Program lesson plans include elements of inquiry-based learning that are aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as well as problem-based learning and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) 5-E instructional model.
The STEM lessons included in this section of the website are the very lessons that we apply throughout our educator conferences and professional development training sessions.
To get a more thorough understanding and deeper knowledge of these lessons as an in classroom instructional tool, educators may want to consider attending an ASU Mars Education Conference.

This book contains 24 illustrated math problem sets based on a weekly series of space science problems. Each set of problems is contained on one page. The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of modern science and engineering issues, often involving actual research data. Learners will use mathematics to explore problems that include basic scales and proportions, fractions, scientific notation, algebra, and geometry.

Students explore Mars and Jupiter, the fourth and fifth planets from the Sun. They learn some of the unique characteristics of these planets. They also learn how engineers help us learn about these planets with the design and development of telescopes, deep space antennas, spacecraft and planetary rovers.

Rating: Example of High Quality NGSS Design if Improved

Science Discipline: Earth & Space Sciences, Physical Sciences

Length: Unit

In Investigating Life on the Third Rock, middle school students work to generate and explore the overarching question of “How does the solar system and its objects affect life on Earth?” Students use modeling and argumentation to explore the lesson-level questions: “What properties of the solar system and its objects help explain why Earth can sustain life?” “Does the Moon affect life on Earth?” and “Why do the solar system and its objects move like they do?”

The Mission to Mars curricular unit introduces students to Mars the Red Planet. Students discover why scientists are so interested in studying this mysterious planet. Many interesting facts about Mars are revealed, and the history of Martian exploration is reviewed. Students will learn about the development of robotics and how robots are beneficial to science, society and the exploration of space. Details on engineers' involvement in space exploration are presented. Furthermore, students will learn how orbits allow astronauts to move from planet to planet and what type of equipment is used by scientists and engineers to safely explore space. Lastly, the specific details on and human risks for a possible future manned mission to Mars (and back to Earth again!) are discussed.

Kobie Boykins went from being a Division 1 hockey player to working on Mars rovers. Learn about his path to the red planet.

Pair this activity with a moon/space unit to engage students in evaluation and critical thinking about life in space. 

This activity allows students to see several key geologic concepts that they will learn in greater detail later in the semester. They compare densities of two different blocks, which serve as proxies for the differences between oceanic and continental crust, and this provides an example of isostasy. They determine sedimentation rates and deduce what type of changes in environment can affect these rates. They determine the relative ages of two different Martian surfaces. Students also get to see hand samples of rock and mineral specimens, and compare hardness and relative sorting. These topics allow students exposure to several different concepts that they will develop a greater appreciation of throughout their courses.

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Explore the difficulties faced with collecting samples and how we are searching for evidence of life on Mars with Scripps Institution's Jeff Bada. (52 minutes)