Mars Colony
5th Grade Prepares for Life on Mars
Launch the media gallery 1 playerThroughout the month of March, we spent a lot of time reading and discussing issues and concerns relating to our environment. As a concluding STEM project, the students were met with this mission:
"You are the first group of astronauts to set foot on the planet Mars. There is nothing there except for dirt, rocks, & mountains. You must establish a human settlement. There is no return ticket home. Design & then build models of structures your colony needs to survive!"
The students worked in groups to research, plan, and build various parts of the colony that they felt were necessary for life on Mars. Recyclable materials were available for them to build with, and they had a checklist of required elements to include (air locks, oxygen source, energy source, etc). I was amazed at how hard they all worked on this project, and really got into great detail with their models. It was a great way to end our unit on environmental changes and the students enjoyed being able to create something using the knowledge they had acquired.
