Send Your Name to Mars
What it is: This is your chance to send your students to Mars! Okay, maybe not literally but you can send their names to Mars. NASA has done this before, you may have sent your names to the moon in the past. Now you and your students have the opportunity to send their names to Mars by way of a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011.
How to integrate Send Your Name to Mars into the classroom: This is a great way to get your students excited about a space unit! Students can start the space unit by sending their name in to be put on the microchip going to Mars and print out the “official” certificate. Follow up this activity by exploring the NASA website or NASA Kids to learn more about the Mars Science Laboratory rover and the mission. If you don’t have access to a computer for each student, you could send your class name to Mars and explore the NASA site as a class using a projector. As an extension activity, you can have students write about what they think it would be like to go to Mars.
Tips: Take a look at the participation map, it is interesting to see who is going to Mars!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Send Your Name to Mars in your classroom.