Imagine Mars:
Example of Integrated STEM Project
The Imagine Mars Project, by Learning.com, is a cross-curricular, integrated STEM
curriculum that guides students in grades 3-8 to conceive, develop, and create
a model community on Mars. The unit consists of five steps, each laying the
foundation for the next. Following is a summary of the general intent of each step
and how this project-based learning model integrates multiple disciplines.
Reflect
This step asks students to explore what they value about their own communities.
To create a vibrant community on Mars, it helps to know what works right
here on Earth. Students investigate what people like and dislike about their
community. They learn how communities deal with challenges. And they learn
how communities provide essential services. This step is the foundation of Imagine
Mars. The project prompts students to think about this step as background rather
than a blueprint for the Mars community they will design. All good engineers build
on the successes of their predecessors. Students can think of this Reflect step as
“doing their homework” to prepare for subsequent steps in Imagine Mars
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.
Discover
In this step, students get into the meat of what living and working on Mars will
be like. They immerse themselves in all things Martian and examine how things
such as communicating, traveling, getting essential supplies, and staying healthy
will be different on the Red Planet than on Earth. They use factual data gathered
in numerous space missions to help them understand the realities of being on
Mars. Information gathered in this step will be crucial in the Create step, in which
students build their model community.
Create
In this step, students build their community models. They use all the information
gathered in the previous three steps to fabricate a model that represents not only
how people will live on Mars, but also the community’s important cultural aspects.
Students need to keep in mind that they are designing models to share with
others in their school, community, or more widely. All aspects of STEM come into
play in this step, and students also use technology to create 3-D models of their
community.