Rover Restraint—Mission to Mars
This week, students became NASA engineers as they designed landing gear for their Mars Rovers. Students thought about what challenges there are to landing a rover on Mars. We then presented students with their mission: landing a raw egg “rover” on the surface of Mars (the floor). All the teams engineering designs were very creative and, regardless of the outcome, the students all had a “smashing” good time while practicing their teamwork, planning, budgeting, and engineering skills.
Want to learn more about exploring Mars, straight from the rover? Follow Curiosity, the Mars Rover that landed in 2012, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity
For a Lesson Extension, we recommend trying a “Naked Egg Drop”. Instead of building protection around the egg, students will need to build a cushioned landing for their naked egg. TeachEngineering offers a resource for this activity here: https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/ucd_eggdrop_activity1.
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