Free Technology for Teachers: Journey to Mars

The compilation video above doesn’t include an earlier SciShow Kids video about Mars. That video is titled What Would We Eat on Mars? The video explains why plants don’t grow on Mars and what it would take to try to grow plants and support life on Mars. The video ends with a series of questions for kids to answer with their thoughts about how we might grow plants on Mars and what to grow and eat on Mars. I think it’s a fun video and a fun set of questions to use to get kids thinking about science.

You can give your students some “hands-on” experience with a Mars rover by using the free Spacecraft AR iPad app offered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The app enables students to learn about various NASA spacecraft including the Curiosity rover, Voyager, Mars Exploration Rover, and a handful of other spacecraft. Spacecraft AR includes information about each spacecraft’s development and use. With Spacecraft AR installed and open on their iPads or phones, students can select a spacecraft or mission then point their iPads or phones at a flat floor or wall see the spacecraft appear. Once the spacecraft appears on screen students can move to see other angles of the spacecraft and move the spacecraft. Students can also pinch and zoom to change the size of spacecraft they’re looking at.

After watching the video about how a Mars rover is designed, have your students head to the Mars Rovers page on NASA’s Space Place website. On that page they can click on cards about each of five Mars rovers to learn about what each one was called, what it did, and what was learned from the work the rover did on Mars.