From: jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov (Jan Wee)
Subject: Live From Mars Teacher's Guide Preview: Closing Activities
Date: Fri, 04 Oct 1996 15:40:18 -0500
Dear discuss-lfm members,
This is the last of the LFM Teacher's Guide Preview files
that I will be sharing today. Keep in mind that we will
be placing these and the rest of the files online at our
LFM web site in the days ahead. Again, these are *not*
in final form, but for your convenience to assist you
in your advance preparation as you implement the LFM
project in your classroom/learning environment.
We will soon be sharing the Planet Explorer Toolkit collaborative
online activity with this forum in the upcoming weeks. This
special activity will involve student research, data collection,
online debate and team work as students step into the shoes of
mission scientists and work together to select the best Planet
Explorer Toolkit. More on this in future postings!
Have a great weekend! :-)
Jan Wee
------------------------------------------------------------
Closing Activities
We expect that Live from Mars will be something of a wild ride, for
you and your students, just as for the spacecraft traveling to the
Red Planet. Just as in traditional field trips down here on Earth,
there will definitely be some bumps along the way. This section of
the Guide, however, is designed to encourage your students to look
back over the experiences they've shared and the new information
they've explored. Contemporary educational research convincingly
demonstrates that understanding is reinforced by the process of
articulating new information for others. We hope these multi-
dimensional, inter-disciplinary Activities suggest ways to do that
in an engaging and exciting manner rather than as a dry "course
review". These Activities should encourage students to go back to
their Mars Mission Logbooks and see their own work as a valuable
resource, as they synthesize the new facts they've mastered,
digest the comments they've heard or read from the expert
scientists
and engineers, and use the research skills they've developed. Direct
your students to review the pre-assessment activity they completed
as they began this journey(see p CHECK) - they will be amazed at
what they've accomplished!
These three Activities also appeal to different grades, and utilize
different types and levels of resources.
* Activity B-1, "A Flag for Mars", is appropriate for younger
students, tapping artistry and language skills as well as new
knowledge of the Red Planet.
* Activity B-2, "Where Next?", invites more extensive technical
and scientific research: PTK proposes two variants, one with, and
one without, online access.
* Lastly, Activity B-3, "To Terraform, or Not to Terraform?"
relies less on the science and logistics of exploring Mars and more
on discussing and debating moral and philosophical issues.
LFM does not expect any class to do all of these, but we are sure you
and your students will benefit from an opportunity to look back over
what you've learned. We also know that student work on any of these
Activities will be some of the most compelling and specific
evidence of what they've absorbed/retained from this unusual
learning experience.
Activity B-1: A Flag for Mars
Objective
Students will demonstrate understanding of the geographical and
political significance of flags by researching and discussing the
historical use of flags on Earth, debating ownership issues for
interplanetary exploration, and designing a flag for Mars.
Materials
* paper/pencils
* drawing/construction paper
* scissors/glue
* online and/or print encyclopedias, and other research sources
* Mars Mission Logbooks
Vocabulary
geopolitical
Engage
Display a variety of flags (U.S., state, school, Girl Scout, etc). Ask
students to identify the group of people which each flag represents.
Ask them what is implied when a flag is placed at a location, i.e.,
the
New World, the Moon, the South Pole. How do explorers "stake out" or
lay claim to this new territory? Whom do the explorers represent?
Explore
Procedure
If possible, implement this activity as an interdisciplinary unit,
allowing students to integrate cross discipline skills within the
context of their "science" unit.
1. Begin this project by having students research the history of their
own flags, either for their city, state, region, province and/or
country. Why do people have flags? What do the graphic elements of
your flag symbolize? How were they selected? Was there any
discussion? Were alternate designs proposed and debated? Who
approved the flag? Has the flag changed over time (like the U.S. flag)
or has it remained the same?
2. Ask students to use the what they have learned from the Live
>From Mars Activities. Encourage them to think about shape, colors,
symbols, and overall design that conveys images, thoughts and facts
about the Red Planet..
3. Have students design original Mars flags. Create a bulletin board
for displaying student work.
4. Once students have completed their flags, ask them to write an
essay about their design. Younger students may want to write a
descriptive essay explaining their decisions about what to include in
a flag. Older students might want to write a persuasive essay to
convince a global "Earth Explores the Solar System" (EESS!)
committee that their particular design should be adopted.
Remind students that the life of a productive scientist or engineer
involves a lot more than number-crunching on a computer: a
researcher must be able to write well to convince funding agencies
to support his or her future activities. Modern science is
increasingly a multi-disciplinary activity, almost inevitably
involving language arts and communications skills along with
content knowledge and logical thinking skills.
Expand/Adapt/Connect
<< SOC ST ICON>>Have students debate the ownership of planets in
the
Solar System. Who should govern them? What laws might be needed?
How would enforcement be handled? (Students might find the
Antarctic Treaty, referenced in Live from Antarctica and LFA 2 of
interest:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/Antarctica/background/NSF/treaty.html)
Review the Student Handout for Activity B-3, Gary Allen's article
appearing in Space News. If appropriate for your students' reading
and comprehension skills, pass out copies and invite even younger
students to discuss the colonization of Mars. (See MultiMedia
Resources for relevant literary materials.)
<<COMPUTER ICON>>Have students create their Mars flags using paint
program software. Send to Jan Wee (JWee@quest.arc.nasa.gov) for
inclusion on the Live From Mars web site.
Suggested URLs
http://www.law.uoknor.edu/flags.html
http://www.adfa.oz.zu/CS/flg/col/Alpha.html
http://www/qflags.com
http://www.magick.net/mars
http://www.magick.net/mars
http://spot.colorado.edu/~marscase/home.html
***
Activity B-2 "Where Next?"
Engage:
Share with your students this July 1996 press clip:
>>>CAROL: NEXT PARA. IN NEWS PRINT FONT<<<
NASA Seeks Proposals for Mars Landing Sites
Washington -- NASA's Office of Space Science plans to award this
autumn as many as 15 grants of up to $20,000 per year for two years
to university, industry and government groups that propose the most
scientifically promising landing sites for the agency's Mars Surveyor
Program ...which is intended to search for life and water sources on
the red planet and increase understanding of the planet's volatile
climate and history ...the grants are available for those missions to
be launched after 2000. The studies NASA officials select will
provide detailed geological maps of proposed landing sites,
exploration strategy, the types of scientific data they expect to find
at the site, and will include a description of rover or land transport
required...
Space News, July 1-7, 1996
Explain/Explore
Passport to Knowledge is NOT suggesting that student teams
compete with career scientists to propose fully detailed and
budgeted plans for NASA's actual missions to Mars in the 21st.
Century -- but we do suggest that an exciting Closing Activity,
drawing on all dimensions of the Live from Mars Module, would be to
invite students, working in teams, to research and write-up their
suggested landing sites, scientific rationales and type of spacecraft
for the "Next" Mars missions.
Note to teachers: this Activity also provides an extremely powerful
way to assess the new learning which students will have gained
from participation in the Module. Best done in Fall 1998, after what
we hope will be Pathfinder's safe landing and successful primary
mission, it's also possible to undertake the Activity at the end of
the 1996-1997 school year: as indicated by the news clip quoted
above, NASA's actual invitation went out in Fall '96, before MPF or
MGS were even launched!
Procedure
PTK invites students to participate in two different ways, in two
different mediums.
Print Only
If your class and school still lacks online access, have students
research more traditional references in books, encyclopedias, news
papers and magazine and CD-ROM's. Use the materials in this Guide
and in the LFM videos as resources. Encourage students to make their
reports as formal as possible, with carefully thought-out rationales,
compelling language, and, if possible, a budget generally
comparable to those for MGS and MPF, scaled upward to reflect
increasing size of rover, etc. After sharing your students' work with
parents and others, please be sure to send some of the more
interesting proposals to PTK (keeping copies for yourself) But, in an
era of "NetDays" and other special incentives from phone companies
and others, consider ways to get online (see below, page CHECK)
since then your students' discussion can take advantage of "peer
review" (kids commenting from across America and around the
world) and direct interaction with expert mentors (see below.)
With Internet Access
Just as Live from Mars began with an online collaborative activity,
PTK will host an online discussion forum for students to interact
with Mars experts to brainstorm, research and refine their missions
plans -- discuss-next. And just as in the online "Great Planet
Debate" which selected the actual planets to observe during Live
from the Hubble Space Telescope, PTK will invite experienced Mars
researchers to serve as online mentors: they'll make suggestions,
and provide references. They'll respond to student input and point out
the pro's and con's of various sites and strategies. PTK will also
provide links to a database which includes some of the actual sites
proposed by career scientists to NASA, but we will encourage
students to evaluate and debate the real proposals and make their
own.
Since this Activity can only be done online, we will provide more
detailed information about discuss-next in late Spring 1997, after
the second LFM program which airs April 24th.
Suggested URLs
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marsland.html
http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/MarsTools/Mars_Cat/Mars_Cat.html
***
Activity B-3: "To Terraform or Not to Terraform?"
Teacher Background
"Mars is interesting because it can be colonized." That's the
provocative lead sentence of an article appearing in Space News,
July 8-14, 1996, by Gary A. Allen Jr., an engineer at NASA Ames
Research Center. Allen argues against focusing Mars exploration on
the scientific search for evidence of past life, which he (rather
dismissively) calls "exopaleontology." Instead he proposes colonizing
Mars with human explorers on the fastest track possible as the best
strategy, and references his own paper in the Journal of the British
Interplanetary Society, JBIpS, arguing for a one-way mission to Mars
delivering 940 colonists at a cost "comparable to simply exploring
the planet." ("One-way" -- you can see why we call this provocative!
However, JBIpS was where Arthur C. Clarke first proposed Earth-
orbiting satellites: it serves as a sounding board for ideas that at
first seem improbable, some of which end up as mundane (sic) fact
within 50 years.)
On a related topic, other scientists, respected NASA Ames
exobiologist Chris McKay among them, discuss ways to terraform
Mars, unlocking the oxygen and water now trapped in its frozen crust
by seeding the poles with hardy microscopic plants, darkening the
surface, heating up the entire planet as a consequence, and so
recapturing the thicker atmosphere and warmer, wetter conditions
which most scientists accept were once present on Mars. (This is
the theme of Kim Stanley Robinson's three award-winning science
fiction novels, Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars: see MultiMedia
Resources.) Some researchers even argue that if there are still
Martian life-forms, microscopic and trapped in the permafrost, they
can be "captured" and put in cold storage, just as smallpox germs
once were here on Earth. In short, build a protected zoo for microbes,
and make Mars fit for humans. To others, this does not seem
environmentally correct treatment of the legitimate, current
inhabitants of Mars.
Materials
Copies of article: Allen Jr., Gary A. "Options for Exploring Mars" in
Space News, July 8-14, 1996, p 13.
Engage
Have students read (or read aloud with them) Allen's article. Allow
time for students to share their initial reactions to the ideas in this
article.
Explore/Explain
Ask students to consider our current reactions to how European
invaders treated the Native American peoples. Encourage students to
review their Mars Mission Logbooks and the work they and their
peers have done over the course of the entire project. Have them
research the issues (encourage online as well as print resources),
then group them in teams with similar perspectives, and marshal
arguments to prepare them to debate, or discuss, or otherwise
report on the issues involved in one or other of the two distinct but
related propositions:
Humans should Colonize Mars rather than sending Robot Missions to
Explore it for Ancient Life, and/or:
Humans should Terraform Mars, whether there are extant Martian
Life-forms, or Not.
Expand/Adapt/Connect
If you lack online access, stage a debate in class, as a formal
debate, or in the format of TV talk show. Or, prepare a class
newsletter summarizing the various printed reports. Or contact
local scientists, share your students' work with them, and ask them
to come in to class to respond. Prepare students to receive and
interact with "experts".
Online LFM will provide (moderated) opportunities for students to
share their arguments and interact, both by asynchronous postings
(e-mail, via the debate-future mail-list) and live WebChats to be
joined by Mars experts. Depending on the level of interest,
technologies and connectivity possessed by participating classes,
LFM may facilitate CU-SeeMe or other forums to exchange comments
between classes. Check the LFM Site in late Spring 1997 and
onwards for the latest!
As in all other Wrap-Up Activities, please record and share the most
interesting student work with PTK by mail or online.
As should be apparent, PTK and LFM do not consider Activity B-3 to
be about "right answers" to the propositions, but more about
appropriate questions and interesting arguments deploying
information acquired during the project in thoughtful, convincing
ways.
Suggested URLs
http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/MarsNews/Zubrin.html
http://www.newscientist.com/pstourist/limit/mars/index.html
http://www-space.arc.nasa.gov/division/ssx/ssx.html
http://www.magick.net/mars
http://spot.colorado.edu/~marscase/home.html