Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Avon Students blast off to Mars with NASA Johnson Space Center


Mrs. Meikle’s 5th grade science students enhanced their science curriculum through an interactive videoconference with the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas. The students were treated to a multimedia rich lesson on Mars and NASA’s mission to the red planet. The videos and images shared to our classes were incredible and provided students a better understanding of our solar system.

The students were issued a challenge to plan a trip to Mars. Once the class was divided into two groups the class learned that the two groups had different tasks to complete, but the groups need to work with each other. Each group was issued three objectives to complete from planning the launch window to and from the planet and how to produce food and find water.

This session was the first of two programs offered by the Johnson Space Center. February 20th the classes will connect to Houston to present the plan to explore Mars. The students have some difficult tasks ahead of them. We look forward to sharing our plans and research collected.