To go or to not to go — the question for a mission to Mars. This resource provides details for a possible manned mission to Mars. Details include a launch schedule, what life would be like on the surface, and how the astronauts would...

Students calculate real ratios that exist between the planets Earth and Mars. After a lecture/demo, students use worksheets and access Internet sites to do their calculations.

Learners 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...

In this Mars Rover Landing worksheet, students are given an image of Mars near the Bonneville Crater. Students determine the image scale in the diagram and use it to find the diameter of the Bonneville Crater, the width of the Rover's...

Students examine core samples from Mars and discover what they can use it to tell the history of Mars.  In this core sample activity students create and analyze their own core samples then eat them at the end.

Learners explore the three-phase strategy used by NASA for scientific exploration. In this space science lesson, students research past missions to Mars. They share their discoveries and create a timeline as a class.

Students, working in small groups construct scale models of the planets and solar system. They examine images of Mars and discuss what might have caused the features. They record facts about their planetary research in their journals and...

Gustav Holst's The Planets provide young musicians an opportunity to examine how composers can create a suite: a collection of smaller pieces grouped to explore a single topic. After listening to "Jupiter," they examine "Mars" in...

Pupils study Mars and Odyssey's mission to Mars. In groups, they plan a community that could live on Mars.

Students study Mars and other plants in the night sky. In a planetarium setting using Digitarium planetarium system, students identify the Big Dipper and Polaris. They explore the major differences between the planets and the stars. ...

Help your class understand the importance of exploration using robots. with a resource that provides a short history of robotics as a lead into looking at Martian robotic exploration missions. The activity specifically looks at the...

Middle schoolers research the planet of Mars using the Internet. They analyze the factors that would enable people to live on Mars and present a slideshow presentation and brochure about Mars.

Middle schoolers examine the properties of metal that can be used on the surface of Mars. They research the Internet to determine the properties of Mars and determine which metals are compatible. They create a slide show presentation of...

In this space exploration worksheet, learners complete a 6 question multiple choice on-line interactive exercise about the exploration of Mars.

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...

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...

Students create a thinking web about Mars.  In this exploratory lesson students pretend they are going to Mars and use a worksheet to answer questions about why they would visit and what they would bring. 

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.

Students describe in words and graphic displays the elevation or depression profile of sections of Mars' Olympus Mons and/or Valles Marineris. They explain how orbiting spacecraft build up global maps one data slice at a time.

High schoolers build simple stream tables and vary the angle of the stream tables in order to simulate different flow rates and compare the results. They observe various features formed in a stream table by flowing water and compare...

Learners plan a mock mission to Mars. For this space science lesson, students work in cooperative groups and select one experiment to take on their mock mission. Learners create a mission plan form and send a proposed experiment to NASA.

Students compare and contrast the volcanoes of Earth and Mars, and examine specific volcanoes on Mars. They model the processes that create cone and shield volcanoes, and measure the slope angles of cone and shield volcanoes.

Young scholars design a calendar that displays time on Mars. They explore the differences between time on Earth and time on Mars while making the calendar.

Students compare geography to topography. In this topography activity, students examine the topography of the surfaces of the Earth. Students compare one feature of Earth to one feature of Mars and present in a PowerPoint.