Middle School Science Lessons

This was one of our favorite lessons for our Space Unit and was used in our Buehler Challenger Center prep leading up to their Mars simulation field trip. Our 6th graders loved that experience and it was often a highlight of their year.

Objectives: what qualifications do you think are needed to create a successful team of astronauts to send to Mars?

Lesson Materials:

• Buehler Challenger Center – This is a modified version of the Educator’s Lesson Plan (pdf) that Buehler provides.
  • This is one of the lessons used to prepare for our Mars simulation field trip.
• Choose the Crew – It is the year 2076 and your team is in charge of selecting a crew of 6 Astronauts to send to Mars – you have biographies of the final 13 highly qualified candidates , who will you pick and why? (Google slides, make a copy to edit)
  • includes slides to add three teachers from your school, we added our science teachers ☺️
  • directions on how to print the biographies as a pdf for note taking are included on slide #’s 21-22

Procedures:

• Read each biography out loud to the class.
  • Ask them to write down 2-3 characteristics that make each candidate a good fit for the mission.
  • These are not shared with the class at this time, students are individually evaluating each candidate.
  • What can these astronauts contribute to the team?
• Once all the biographies have been read, assign students into break out groups.
  • We did this activity after The Space Missions Timeline lesson we did previously.
    • NASA Space Travel Timeline – students will research and present one part of the timeline of space exploration, from the Mercury Missions to Artemis II.
  • I had my students regroup with their teams from this lesson
• As a group they will share the qualifications they think each astronaut will add to the mission and evaluate them one at a time.
• Place a star next to the candidates that your group decided would be a good fit and why.
• Students will continue until they have narrowed down their final 6 Astronauts.
• Each team will present to the class who they think the best candidates are and why
• Tally up the votes, which astronauts received the most votes?
• If you have more than 6 astronauts, as a class, discuss and vote for the final 6 for this mission.
• Once your class has selected their crew, reveal one at a time who the candidates are.
• Who did you end up sending to Mars?
• Suggestion – make various versions of astronaut biographies and mix up the order of each to avoid spoilers for the classes that follow