What is Reaching for the Red Planet?
Reaching for the Red Planet is a multi-purpose curriculum focusing on planning a Mars colony. The project entails learning general facts about the planets, learning about the Earth's environment, choosing a purpose for a colony on Mars, and planning and designing a colony on Mars. The students will use drawings, creative writing, research skills, team work, math, and the scientific method to explore their own environment, and design an artificial one for Mars. Several assignments, a teacher's tour guide to the planets, a guide to the question of life on Mars, and a guide to current and planned Mars missions are included in Reaching for the Red Planet and experiments for the students to perform in class are explained in detail. I hope your students will find Reaching for the Red Planet to be a fun and educational experience
Astronomy With Air -Why do stars glimmer? This activity uses lenses to illustrate the glittering of stars.
Distances
in the Solar System - This exercise uses familiar distances
and relates them to astronomical distances so that students can sense their
reality.
View
To the North-A series of photos of the north sky taken at
different hours throughout the night. This lesson teaches the concept of
moving stars and rotation of the earth.
What
Are Coordinates?-This lesson involves locating stars with coordinates
and uses a chess board as a reference for comparison.