Earth and Space Science -Mars Rover

Introduction to Earth and Space Science -Mars Rover

-Next Generation Science Standards* 2-ESS-1-1, 2-ESS-2-2

I have been working on the design of this Earth and Space Science project for awhile.  I wanted to teach Jack about the landscape and atmosphere of another planet so that he could compare it to Earth’s geography. I chose Mars because we have been learning so much about it with the recent Curiosity expeditions.

This lesson was very fun, but it involved a lot of materials. If you wanted to replicate this lesson but you were short on time, there are a few parts that you can remove.  The first part of the project where we dyed a white sheet red could definitely be cut out by just purchasing a red piece of fabric.  Also, as a cautionary statement, of course, very close adult supervision would be necessary for the entire process of dying the sheet.

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Materials List for Earth and Space Science -Mars Rover

–Second Grade Earth and Space Science -The Mars Rover Lesson
–Curiosity’s Mission on Mars: Exploring the Red Planet by Ron Miller
-dry ice (this was tough to find, I found it at a ShopRite, check this directory for locations)
–red fabric dye
–red cotton sheet out of white fabric
–salt
–styrofoam cones
–painted them red
–baking soda
–white distilled vinegar
–red food coloring
–construction paper, brown and pink
–kinetic sand
–black marker
–large plastic bowl
–large kitchen trash bag
–meat tenderizer
–plastic funnel

Step 1: Download the Second Grade Earth and Space Science -The Mars Rover Lesson and complete the worksheets

Here is a sample page from our worksheets:

Step 2a (optional): Dye the white cotton sheet red following instructions on the package of dye

The first part of the lesson was to use red fabric dye to make a red cotton sheet out of white fabric.  I wanted to use a sheet as opposed to a flat piece of poster board so that the landscape had more small detail with the wrinkles in the sheet.

We needed one gallon of water, which we had to heat on the stove to make it steaming hot.  Then we had to add a 1/4 cup of salt and pour in the dye and stir until the dye dissolved.  

Then we followed the directions on the dye package to be sure the color would stay after it was rinsed.

Step 3: Review the landscape and atmosphere of Mars using your reference book of choice about Mars

Ok, so now that we had our red sheet, we had to find out what to put on it.  I got a book called Curiosity’s Mission on Mars: Exploring the Red Planet by Ron Miller.  This book was a great resource because it was published in 2014.  Anything older than that would not have the most up-to-date information that we have recently learned about Mars from the Curiosity missions.  Since the book is a bit advanced for Jack I read through it and took some notes.  I took notes about the landscape and atmosphere of Mars.

Here is a video of Jack answering some questions about Mars, such as:

Why is Mars red?

What color is the sky on Mars?

Are there volcanoes on Mars?

Where can dry ice be found on Mars?

Step 4: Paint the foam cones and get your volcanoes ready for eruption on the red sheet

We found out that Mars has volcanoes, and one really really big volcano called Olympus Mons. We got two styrofoam cones and painted them red.  Before we painted though, I used a knife (ADULTS ONLY) to carve a hole in the center so that we could add baking soda and white distilled vinegar with red food coloring to make it erupt lava later on.

We painted our foam cones and made holes in them, now we were ready to pour in baking soda through a plastic funnel.

Step 5: Make river beds and sand dunes, label parts of the landscape and atmosphere

To make the river beds we used brown construction paper.  We just used a black marker to draw on the craters and for the sand dunes we used kinetic sand.  The Curiosity Rover we used was just a little car Jack made, but really anything could be used to represent the car.

Our Mars landscape contained a polar ice cap, sand dunes, craters, old dried up river beds, the Curiosity Rover, Olympus Mons, the Mariner Valley, a desert, and an ancient shoreline from a sea or lake.  This Earth and Space Science project was a great way to compare the landscape of Mars with Earth’s landscape.

Step 6: Set up dry ice and pink sky

The most difficult thing to find for this Earth and Space Science project was the dry ice.  This is also the item which requires the most caution when handling it.  Here is a video I made discussing the safety precautions one should take when dealing with dry ice.  This video can also be found in our post about Comets because we used dry ice for that project as well.

Here we are erupting our volcanoes and crushing our dry ice with a meat tenderizer in a plastic bowl lined with a large kitchen trash bag.

We could see the dry ice sublimating from solid CO2 to gaseous CO2!  So much fun!

Step 7: Complete the assessment in the Second Grade Earth and Space Science -The Mars Rover Lesson

Here is a sample page from our assessment:

Source:

NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

*”Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.”