Educator Game Plan: Monday's InSight Mars Landing and Beyond!

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Title: Educator Game Plan: Monday's Mars Landing and Beyond!

Educator Game Plan: Monday's InSight Mars Landing and Beyond!

A NASA spacecraft is scheduled to land on Mars around noon PST tomorrow! Get your classroom ready to partake in all the excitement of NASA’s InSight mission – from landing through science operations on Mars – with this educator game plan. We’ve got everything you need to engage students in NASA’s latest Mars mission.

Today

• Read NASA/JPL Edu’s Teachable Moment, “NASA’s ‘Cyber Monday’ Mars Landing to Deliver Science Firsts,” to get a preview of the engineering and science involved in landing InSight and placing its instruments on Mars. Explore the related activities and resources in the “Teach It” and “Explore More” sections.

Landing Day (Nov. 26)

• Check out The Oatmeal’s webcomic for an explainer of how the InSight mission will land on Mars, what it will do on the planet and what it's hoping to find out.
• Watch these fun, one-minute videos for a quick overview of how landing sites are chosen, how spacecraft get to Mars, and what it takes to land there.
• Have students read about JPL’s “landing-site dude” and his rotating cast of interns, who have helped select seven of NASA’s Mars landing sites – including InSight’s! Story available Nov. 26th at 6 a.m. PST on NASA/JPL Edu News.
• Have students read the JPL news release “How Will We Know When InSight Touches Down?”
• Watch live commentary as a class and follow along on the InSight Mission Blog, as well as Facebook and Twitter (@NASAInSight, @NASAJPL and @NASA) using #MarsLanding.

Next Day

• Review the Teachable Moment to find out what needs to happen before InSight’s science operations can begin. Then create an instructional plan with these lessons, activities and resources that get students engaged in the science and engineering behind the mission.
• Check out InSight’s first image from Mars, here. (This is also where you can find raw images from InSight throughout the life of the mission.)

Over the Next Month

• Watch these “Mars in a Minute” videos to find out what InSight is hoping to learn on the Red Planet: “What’s Inside Mars?” “Are There Quakes on Mars?” And “How Did Mars Get Such Enormous Mountains?”
• Have students explore NASA’s Experience InSight interactive to learn about InSight’s science instruments and how each will be deployed to the surface of Mars.
• Follow along on the InSight Mission Blog and @NASAInSight social media over the next few weeks as NASA gets to work surveying the landing site and determining where to place each of the instruments.
• Try the lessons and activities below with students to get them doing some of the same science and engineering as InSight:

Robotic Arm Challenge (Grades K-8) - In this challenge, students will use a model robotic arm to move items from one location to another. They will engage in the engineering design process to design, build and operate the arm. Get started

*NEW* Exploring the Colors of Mars (Grades 2,5) - Students use satellite and rover images to learn about the various features and materials that cause color variation on the surface of Mars, then create their own “Marscape.” Get started

*NEW* Planetary (Egg) Wobble and Newton's First Law (Grades 3,6-8) - Students try to determine the interior makeup of an egg (hard-boiled or raw) based on their understanding of center of mass and Newton’s first law of motion. Get started

Touchdown (Grades 3-8) - Students design and build a shock-absorbing system that will protect two "astronauts" when they land. Get started

Mission to Mars Unit (Grades 3-8) - In this 19-lesson, standards-aligned unit, students learn about Mars, design a mission to explore the planet, build and test model spacecraft and components, and engage in scientific exploration. Get started

*NEW* Heat Flow Programming Challenge (Grades 5-12) - Students use microcontrollers and temperature sensors to measure the flow of heat through a soil sample. Get started

Quake Quandry (Grades 11-12) - In this illustrated math problem, students use the mathematical constant pi to identify the timing and location of a seismic event on Mars, called a "marsquake." Get started