Middle Grades Classroom Materials

This Pioneering Mars Curriculum and Activity Guide is designed to highlight not only the Pioneering Mars project, but to use the central idea of this project to educate students on scientific problem-solving and experimental design.

Each unit addresses a core component of the project and will lead students through the processes of researching and synthesizing information, as well as develop critical thinking skills. Activities embedded in each lesson span academic disciplines and address reading, math, and writing, as well as science content.

All activities are tied to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core Curriculum standards for grades 5-8. While this curriculum is designed primarily for upper elementary or middle school use, it is easily adaptable to a high school audience.

- Link to Pioneering Mars: Curriculum and Activity Guide

Pioneering Mars

This year, students at high schools in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama, will have the unprecedented opportunity to engage in hands-on research with a team of university and government scientists working on NASA’s Mission to Mars project. Students will use specially-designed incubators at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to determine whether Antarctic algae could grow in a Martian environment. NASA astronauts will conduct parallel experiments simultaneously on the International Space Station (ISS).

This material is based upon work supported by NASA under grant or cooperative agreement award number NNX12AK94A. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Pioneering Mars

Pioneering Mars

Middle Grades Materials

Pioneering Mars

Middle Grades Classroom Materials

Pioneering Mars