4Frontiers Corporation - Lesson & Unit Plans

While these lessons interrelate and support one another, each can stand alone, and no particular order is required if more than one are being taught.

Living on Mars:

Living in a Habitat (Free! Click to Download)

Students design a habitat to support a group of explorers on Mars, thinking about their various needs and how to address them in a limited environment. For middle school (6-8). (A 4Frontiers Original Lesson Plan)

Growing Plants in a Greenhouse (Free! Click to Download)

Students design and run experiments to test the effect of different variables involved in growing plants in greenhouses, as Martian explorers would. For middle school (6-8). (A 4Frontiers Original Lesson Plan)

Mars Low Pressure Greenhouses – A 4H Module (Free! Click Below to Download)

Students assemble a low pressure growth chamber, learn about the effects of low pressure on gas dynamics, see Boyle’s Law in action and finally compare plant growth in different greenhouse pressures. (Module Provided by the University of Florida Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering)

4H Module Instructions – Click to Download

4H Module Worksheet – Click to Download

4H Module Presentation – Click to Download

Protecting against Radiation (Free! Click to Download)

Students learn about some of the dangers of radiation and how explorers on Mars might deal with those risks. For middle school (6-8). (A 4Frontiers Original Lesson Plan)

Exploring the Surface (Free! Click to Download)

Students become familiar with some of the challenges of surface operations on Mars, and they participate in simulations of those operations. For middle school (6-8). (A 4Frontiers Original Lesson Plan)

Searching for Life (Free! Click to Download)

Students learn about the Martian environment, the possibilities for life being there, and the strategies for looking for it. For middle school (6-8). (A 4Frontiers Original Lesson Plan)

Communicating with People on Mars and on Earth (Free! Click to Download)

Students participate in exercises to help them understand the challenges of communication that Martian explorers would face. For middle school (6-8). (A 4Frontiers Original Lesson Plan)

The Earth / Mars Comparison poster is a great compliment for these lesson plans.

See the Educator Links section.

Mars Science Activities:

Mars and Earth: Science Learning Activities (Free from NASA. Click Here)

The Mars and Earth activities target the elementary school level, and have been taylored for used in afterschool programming. Each activity explores a concept related to the nature of science. Students may then put their new knowledge into practice. Most of the nine sequential activities can be completed in about one hour. (A NASA Lesson Plan)

Kissing Mars rocks with the rover’s rats: An educational exercise to understand drilling rocks on Mars Free! (Click to Download Summary) (Click to Download Detail)

The ongoing successful explorations of NASAs Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit and Opportunity, has enhanced interest from the general public in space exploration. This is an Education-Public Outreach (EPO) activity to inform elementary school children about the scientific rationale behind drilling rocks on Mars to determine their compositions. Using various types of Hershey Kisses to represent different types of rocks, and straws to represent the MER Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT), students can participate in a inexpensive, easy to do, and tasty exercise to understand the how and why of the RAT operations on Mars. (An activity by David A. Williams, Patrick L. Whelley, Jacob E. Bleacher, Shelby R. Cave, Veronica A. Zabala-Aliberto, Angelina A. Zabala, and Ronald Greeley)