Imagine
Having researched what makes a good community on Earth, students envision a
new community on Mars. There’s a lot to consider. What will they need to survive
on the Red Planet and how will life be different there than on Earth? What will
people in the community do? How will they work together? How much “stuff” can
people take along? This step is preliminary brainstorming for the Discover step, in
which students find concrete answers to many of the challenges people will face
journeying to Mars. To help them begin to sort through the many questions and
challenges, they examine expeditions of past explorers, look at programs designed
to simulate conditions on another planet, and think about their community’s
identity and purpose