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...
Curated OER
Solar System Quiz
For this space science worksheet, students complete an eight question quiz about the solar system. The quiz has multiple choice, short answer and true or false questions.
Curated OER
Strange New Planet
Fourth graders gather data and simulate a Mars spacecraft mission using multi-sensory observations.
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Can an Astronaut on Mars Distinguish Earth from its Moon?
High schoolers explore the possibility of being on Mars and being able to identify the Earth. In this space lesson plan students complete a set of calculations to see if this is possible.
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Searching for life
Students 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 activity, learners 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...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast: Hershey and Mars
Twelfth graders compare and contrast information from stories. In this similarities and differences activity, 12th graders read about Milton Hershey and Forrest S. Mars to learn about the lives of the two men. Students complete a...
Curated OER
Spacesuit Design
Students analyze the conditions on Mars and design a spacesuit to help humans survive. In this space exploration lesson, students identify the inhospitable conditions on Mars. They work to design a spacesuit for a specific mission on Mars.
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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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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,...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Is There Water on Mars?
Young scholars decide whether or not there is or has even been water on Mars. They analyze temperature and pressure data from the Pathfinder mission to Mars, and then they analyze images of Mars, interpreting the landforms they see and...