Our first "Novel" Study is based on Andy Weir's The Martin. Where novel studies are usually a language based program, we intend to use the awesome book as a vehicle to learn math, science, health, geography and language. We are quite excited about both sharing the story but also exploring curricular areas in a Mars Simulation context.
Students will be guided by the late Cosmonaut Yuri Molotov(our fictional Russian space researcher) and his research. Video will be regular thing so check them out here. Students will be growing, nurturing and harvesting potatoes right in our classrooms, challenged to harvest enough to support a single day's caloric intake for their team. Lab reports will be written. Creative writing modelled after Weir's incredible ability to research and depict realistic plot lines and details, 'suspension of belief'. Students will be comparing and contrasting Earth's geography to that of Mars(landforms and natural resources) and how both were or could be settled.
So much fun.
Here is the OneNote link students can access each day to guide them through their "The Martian" study...
NOTE: Students will be reading an edited version of The Martian. The story has not been compromised but rather inappropriate language has been changed to accommodate our 12-14 year old readers.
The Martian by Andy Weir
NASA astronaut Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer, is left stranded on Mars when the crew of the Ares 3 mission are forced to evacuate their landing site in Acidalia Planitia due to an intense dust storm with high winds. Watney is impaled by an antenna during the evacuation, destroying his flight space suit's bio-monitor computer, and his five crewmates believe him to be dead. His injury proves relatively minor, but with no way to contact Earth, Watney must rely on his scientific and technical skills to survive, growing potatoes in the crew's Martian habitat (or Hab) and burning hydrazine to make water. He begins a log of his experiences for some future archaeologist who might discover it long after his death.
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