Mission Library

Mars Quarantine
Health
Grades 4-12

The Mission
37 min

Storyline

Created in collaboration with the National 4-H Association

In this fun, general Mission for use in any classroom, the crew will determine the cause of mysterious illnesses across several Mars colonies.

After the arrival of a new colony ship on Mars, several facilities are reporting signs of varying sicknesses. The crew will investigate to determine the best course of action at each facility. All facilities are quarantined, but are mutually dependent, so we can’t afford to keep them all closed forever.

3-Dimensional Science

Phenomenon

People are sick and quarantined.

Science and Engineering Practices

Asking Questions and Defining Problems

  • Ask questions about what would happen if a variable is changed.

  • Ask questions that can be investigated and predict reasonable outcomes based on patterns such as cause and effect relationships.

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

  • Make observations and/or measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon or test a design solution.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

  • Analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena, using logical reasoning, mathematics, and/or computation.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

  • Use evidence (e.g., measurements, observations, patterns) to construct or support an explanation or design a solution to a problem.

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

  • Students routinely identify and test causal relationships and use these relationships to explain change. They understand events that occur together with regularity might or might not signify a cause and effect relationship.

Resources
Timeline
Skills in Action