A Mission to Mars: Structuring the Year in an Out of This World Way

Peter Hennigar is always thinking -- "how can I engage my students? How can I stretch their thinking? What will raise their eyebrows and maybe also cause them to furl." Peter is in his second year teaching science at AISM, and as an encore to his impactful debut, he decided that starting the year with everyone distance learning was a perfect opportunity to launch this innovative approach to the year-- using the theme of a mission to the red planet as a way to structure the year and introduce important concepts and ideas in a different way.

“I always look for storylines that I can use to help the kids weave together the content we explore into a more coherent package. It helps them to understand the relevance of the ideas. It also answers the so what? Why is this an important question?”

This is even more true when your students are spread around the world and in differing time zones. Most are in Mozambique, but some students are in European countries like Portugal and the Netherlands while others are across the ocean in cities like Houston and Toronto. Some are participating in real time while others view recorded lessons at times that better suit their schedules. An educational tool for teachers that has been around for awhile called Padlet is a perfect mechanism to pose questions and allow student to respond as well as ask their own questions and respond to one another.

Peter’s Mission to Mars Padlet began with four broad categories:


Getting There


What is There?


Recognizing Life


Establishing Life

Peter invited his students to share their initial questions about the challenge. Like any group of people confronted with something new, the initial reactions ranged from reserved and mildly interested to excited and enthusiastic. A sampling of the questions that students posed under each broad category include:

Getting there

What materials can we use to get there?
Who would be the best people to go?
What skill sets are needed to survive and flourish on mars?
Do we have a capacity limit?
What supplies are necessary?
What about air?
We could use a jet
how long would it take for us to get there?
Is there an ideal location that the rocket should be launched from to ensure the quickest route?


What is there?
What would we do once we have arrived, what would be the protocol or list of things we would need to accomplish upon landing.
Will there be threats on mars?
what terrain will our vehicles have to account for?
How can we use the resources there to our advantage?
Is everyone going to have to wear space suits all the time ?


Recognizing Life
How will we protect ourselves from possible sicknesses?
How will we not threaten life there?
What would be do if we found some type of life there?
If there is life on mars can it get the corona virus?
What will we do if we encounter life, what would the protocol be?


Establishing Life
What will we do for the Astronauts to have safe drinking water? We know that there is water on Mars but we aren't sure if it is safe
In what ways can we replicate the systems that we use here on earth to keep us alive, on mars
How would we build our civilizations there
Would there be medical supplies in case of emergency's and who would administer it to the injured/sick one
Could we create an artificial atmosphere?
Where would be the best place to start establishing life?
How would we organize ourselves?

Obviously this is the type of structure to a year that fits nicely to AISM’s core value of Inspire Curiosity. But it’s not much of a stretch to see how this can touch other core values like Inspire Grit and Celebrate Humanity.



As the class progresses, we will orbit around and check in with mission control (Peter Hennigar) to see how the approach is working. In the mean time What questions do you have? Do you want to follow the mission? Check back here or simply subscribe to #AISMLearns.