TITLE: CRASHED ON THE MOON
AUTHOR: Claudia Todd-Sonnichsen, Ponca City School District, Ponca City, OK.
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: I use this lesson for grades 7-12 Earth-Space
Science although it was originally designed as a decision-making activity.
OVERVIEW: This is a group activity that I found about 15 years ago.
I use it in Earth-Space Science to make the differences between the
environments on the earth and the moon more relevant, and to set the
stage for our study of the basic environmental differences between the
earth and other planets.
PURPOSE: Students memorize the environmental differences among the
planets but usually do not develop a feel for how they might affect
life in that environment. This lesson stimulates student thinking
about what their life might be like on the moon and sets the stage
for a brief study of the environments on other planets.
OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:
1. Compare and contrast the environments of our moon and the earth.
2. Give practical examples of how these differences might affect
one's daily activities on our moon.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS: A script of the spaceship crash, The list of
survival equipment available on the spaceship
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. The teacher or students who have done the necessary research
compare and contrast, both verbally and in writing, some of the major
environmental differences between the earth and our moon.
Examples of some major factors:
a. Atmospheric Pressure
b. Temperature
c. Weather
e. Gravity
f. Organisms
g. Oxygen available
h. Crustal activity--quakes, volcanos, movement
2. Examples are solicited from other students about how these
differences might affect daily activities on our moon from the class.
3. Students are then divided into groups. Each group is the crew
on a spaceship that is about to crash on the moon.
4. They usually read a prepared script describing their "crash" on
the moon. One group of juniors and seniors took this activity on as
a special project and worked up a skit, complete with a space ship,
background music, black light, and a narrator.
5. Following the crash, an announcement is made that the spaceship
is disabled, the radio is broken, and nearest base is 50 km. away.
Each group must get to the base with no outside help.
6. Their task is to decide as a group which emergency supplies from
their disabled spaceship to take with them. They are to list the supplies
in order of priority and state why they chose each item. Below is a
partial list that is usually given:
-First Aid Kit
-Water
-Freeze dried food
-50 feet of rope
-Parachute
-Inflatable Raft
-Small backpack Stove
-Stove Fuel
-Matches
-Standard backpack tent
-Sleeping Bags
-Pressure Suits
-Extra oxygen cylinders compatible with pressure suits
-Compass
-Map of Moon
-Suit repair kit
-Flashlight
7. Afterwards each group reports on their list and why they chose each item.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1. The teacher or the students in charge discuss the "official list"
and why the items were prioritized as they were. There are no real
right and wrong answers although some items would obviously be more
valuable on the moon in an emergency.
2. Students compare and contrast the environmental differences found
on the earth and the moon on paper. They give examples of how each
difference might affect their life if they were living on the moon.
3. The teacher uses this activity to introduce the study of the
environments of the other planets.
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