Material Detail

In 2001, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft discovered significant amounts of water ice buried in the high latitude regions of Mars. This exciting discovery, based upon data from the Mars Gamma Ray Spectrometer, helped motivate the development of the Mars Phoenix Lander mission, which will arrive in the Martian arctic in 2008 to investigate this buried water ice. The product includes five classroom activities related to the discovery of water ice. These field-tested activities involve both guided and open inquiry activities using real data to investigate and learn about processes occurring on Mars. Each lesson includes a teacher guide and student guide. In addition, some of the lessons are accompanied by PowerPoint presentations and one extension activity utilizes an educational Flash animation.

Disciplines:

• Science and Technology  / Astronomy