My Life Has Been Overtaken By Aliens!

Okay not really, but close! My students and I have started a new unit on Space. I figured I could teach it the old boring, read this, answer these questions, way, or I could do something neat! I chose to have some fun and we are now embarking on a trip to Mars. Okay, not really, but close!

We are part of the Marsville project. A project sponsored and put on (for free, teachers like that word) by the National Research Council. Throughout the next three months we will be learning about Space, Mars specifically, doing crazy, but interesting experiments, learning about Space Travel, talking about nutrition and fitness (astronauts need to be physically fit), and building life-support systems. Students even blog and make their own mission patches. In the end we will spend a day “on Mars” with the rest of the Manitoba participants. We build massive bubbles (I built one on Friday and it was big, trust me!) and present our projects inside of them (“on Mars”). Already it has been lots of fun, and we have only just begun.

Of course a project like this means a little more prep for me to do, but the smiles and excitement of students is worth the late evenings! In fact I am becoming very interested in Space too. It was really never my thing until now, but wow are there some interesting finds out there in our big, wide universe. God created Earth, which was awe-inspiring. But WOW!, He also created so much else, all of which are also awe-inspiring! So while Aliens have not really overtaken my life the study of Space (which does not include aliens) has me hooked!