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PROJECT-BASED LEARNING - READY FOR YOUR CLASSROOM
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Create a Mars Base - Project Based Learning Unit

Create a Mars Base - Project Based Learning Unit

USD 7.50Price

There are no shops on Mars. If you don't bring it or make it, you don't have it.

Create a Mars Base is a complete, ready-to-teach project where students design a home for a crew on another planet. They research the conditions, choose where to land, decide what and who to take, and plan a base that keeps everyone alive.


The skills are hidden inside the mission. Students debate whether a rover matters more than spare parts, consider who could fix a broken water system, and work out where their crew will sleep, grow food, and exercise. They turn research into design decisions, map their base, and use feedback to improve it before presenting to mission control on Launch Day.


Open the slides, print the pages, and launch the mission. Add suitable research sources and classroom materials if you're including a STEM build.


What's inside

  • Presentation slides for every stage, one idea per slide

  • Project Journal with printable pages for research, planning, design, feedback, and reflection

  • Four base designs to explore, with questions that help students compare them

  • Mars research and landing-site activities to connect the science to students' designs

  • Two ranking challenges: mission supplies and choosing a crew

  • Grid base maps in portrait and landscape layouts

  • A STEM planning page with six build options, including a base, dome, greenhouse, rover, airlock, and mission patch

  • Four extension activities: Mars math, a research quest, mission suit design, and a crew log

  • A Launch Day showcase with visitor notes

  • A project rubric and a complete teacher guide


How it works

Students move through five stages: Brief, Investigate, Create, Improve, Share. It's the same structure used in every Sherbert Learning project, so your class learns the process once and carries it into the next unit.


Every page and stage is optional. Print only the pages you need. Run the project over four to six lessons, or stretch it across a term as a Friday afternoon unit, allowing extra time for research and building. Whole class, small groups, pairs, or solo, it works however you teach.


What it covers

Every project builds the same core skills:

  • Generating ideas and choosing between them

  • Justifying decisions

  • Giving and using peer feedback

  • Revising work after feedback

  • Reflecting on the process

  • Presenting to an audience


This project also covers:

  • Space science and conditions on Mars

  • Human needs and life-support systems

  • Researching and comparing possible landing sites

  • Prioritizing supplies and crew skills

  • Planning layouts using grids, labels, and keys

  • Engineering design and optional STEM construction

  • Measurement and calculating supply needs

  • Creative writing through a first-week crew log


The details

  • Grades 2 and up

  • Low prep, with research sources needed for investigation activities

  • Optional STEM builds using classroom materials

  • Mars math in metric and imperial versions

  • PDF and PowerPoint, instant digital download

  • Single-classroom license


Built by a practicing classroom teacher.

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