Participant Information

1. Participant Information • Aaron McKinnon • South Jr. High, Boise, Idaho • 9th Grade Physical Science, Earth Science • Whitney Eggers • Emmett Jr. High, Emmett, Idaho • 7th Grade Life Science

2. Mentor Information • Behzad Raiszadeh • Modeling and Simulation of the Mars Exploration Missions (MER), specifically, entry, descent, and landing simulations

3. Mentor Information • Eric Queen • Simulations modeling Aeromaneuvering of entry, descent and landing for different missions including MER, Mars Phoenix and Polar Lander and the Mars Science Laboratory Mission

4. What Does It Take To Land On Mars? Aaron McKinnon Whitney Eggers July 2011

5. How our mentors helped us  • Behzad created the simulation for our lesson using Matlab and continually supported us in developing and engineering our “Sphube” launch system. • Eric created the simulation used in our lesson plan in Excel and solved our initial velocity problems.

6. Whitney and Aaron's Educational Philosophy • Our courses are introductory in nature and we want out students to experience hands-on science and have fun doing it; in preparation for more rigorous courses in the future.

7. Lesson Overview & Content Focus • Lesson focuses on students understanding and experiencing the engineering and design process through modeling and simulation. • Content focus will be on reinforcement of Newton’s laws, air resistance and the Conservation of Energy.

8. Grade & Student Prerequisites • Grades 8,9 • Basic knowledge of Newton’s Laws, kinetic and potential energy and Conservation of Energy

9. Learning Objectives • Students will be able to brainstorm answers to unknown and new situations by using prior knowledge and simulations.

10. Day 1 • Create Engineering Teams for the “What Does It Take to Land On Mars?” activity. • 4 members per team, different jobs throughout the unit. • Brainstorm Topic: “What challenges are there in landing on Mars? • Students follow guide found in Student Resources

11. Day 1 Contd. • After brainstorming challenges of landing on Mars, students will communicate with other groups through a jigsaw activity and share ideas to model the communication that happens between engineers and their teams all the time!

12. Day 1 -2 Interactive Powerpoint Activity: • Engineer identified challenges compared to the students generated challenges • The solutions to those challenges through questions. • Videos of simulations created by engineers to illustrate their solutions. • PPT is modeled after a poster created by NASA Engineer, Jeremy Snider, for presentation to middle school youth in Virginia.

13. Day 1 -2 Interactive PowerPoint Activity: • Students will also visit and evaluate different selected NASA sites; simulations, videos, etc.

14. Challenge#3slowing down enough to land Challenge #1 Entering the atmosphere Challenge#2Entry guidance What does it take to LAND on Mars? Mouse over to see how the NASA engineers over came these challenges! Challenge#3 Preparing to Land Challenge #5 Landing Concept Review

15. Coming in too fast could burn up the spacecraft! Which craft would you choose to survive the heat? A B C Click here to see a “HOT” simulation of the Mars Space Capsule entering the Martian atmosphere.

16. Correct!!! This shape reduces heating as the capsule enters the atmosphere. In fact, 99% of the heat energy created during entry is absorbed by the heat shield at the bottom of the capsule. It will be traveling at 13 times the speed of sound during entry! Back to Same ChallengeHomeNext Challenge

17. Science fiction is fun, but in reality this vehicle COULD NOT land on Mars because it does not have sufficient protection from heating!!! Back to Same ChallengeHomeNext Challenge

18. The shuttle is too big and heavy. It will not fit inside the launch vehicle (a.k.a the rocket). The shuttle is too big and heavy. It will not fit inside the launch vehicle (a.k.a the rocket). Back to Same ChallengeHomeNext Challenge

19. Day 3 • Science By Democracy! • Students VOTE on whether a given description describes either scientists or engineers. • Review Interactive PPT, highlights, fav sites. • Activity: Throw Catch Draw! • Introduction to projectile trajectories and variables that influence flight.

20. Day 4 • Finish “Throw Catch Draw!” • Activity: Sphube Launcher • Using PVC pipe, bungee cords, computer simulation and experimentation to predict the launch range of a rubber sphere, a cube and a combination of a sphere and cube, a SPHUBE.

21. Measure Spring Constant, “K” Guess Vo (initial velocity Run Simulation Does Sim Hit Target? NO Use K, V0 to calculate ∆X to hit target YES Experiment: Launch Sphube

23. Student Resource Pages & Assessment Sources • List several ways you will evaluate student performance; what activities will you be assessing and how—reflection, completion of activities, accuracy of challenge Sphube launch

24. Next Steps • How will you use this lesson back home Personal classroom! Share with my team teachers, mirror teacher and department! • How will you use what you’ve learned to improve/develop more ModSim lessons I know what they are now so I can better apply and design them!

25. How can you ignite your school colleagues about ModSim Math will love it! Share it during faculty meeting, get Earth Science teachers also involved. • Where else do you plan on disseminating the ModSim message state workshops, incoming 6th grade class, school board, 4-H Group,

26. Thank you!