Students investigate how humans can survive and build a sustainable colony on Mars by tackling playful survival challenges and exploring the question, How can humans survive and build a sustainable colony on Mars? They work in teams to imagine, build, test, and improve a settlement that keeps people alive, meets basic needs with limited resources, and can grow over time through hands-on games, habitat simulations, and fast design rounds. Through interactive modeling, problem-solving, shared decision-making, and revision, students apply science and engineering ideas to authentic questions and share their thinking through models, digital simulations, presentations, and reflection.

Students will investigate how humans can survive and build a sustainable colony on Mars by studying how air, water, food, energy, and shelter systems must work together through playful survival stations, habitat simulations, and design challenges that model a harsh environment. They will use the engineering design process to define problems, compare trade-offs, test and revise hands-on models and digital simulations, and justify colony design choices with evidence. Students will work in teams to make shared decisions, respond to critique, and solve colony crises related to limited resources, extreme temperatures, radiation, and low gravity. They will communicate their learning through sketches, labeled models, simulation updates, portfolio reflections, and a final presentation that explains how their colony supports life now and can grow over time.

Students will create a set of mission artifacts throughout the project, including a survival-needs systems map, annotated habitat sketches, resource-budget trackers, team decision logs, quick challenge cards, and mini Mars crisis prompts tied to the question, How can humans survive and build a sustainable colony on Mars? Midway through the project, each team will build and test a prototype of one colony system, such as water recycling, food production, shelter, air, or energy, and develop a trade-off decision board that compares design choices and explains which options best support survival now and sustainable growth over time. By the end, teams will present a working Mars colony model with labeled water, food, shelter, air, and energy systems that visitors can test during the expo, along with an interactive digital simulation showing how the settlement changes as teams solve survival problems, manage limited resources, and plan for future expansion. Individual students will also contribute weekly mission check-ins, portfolio pieces such as research notes and prototype revisions, and a final reflection explaining what they learned, what failed and improved, and how they strengthened a collaboration skill.

Open with a playful “Mars Colony Crisis Escape Room” where teams race through hands-on air, water, food, shelter, and energy stations using resource tokens, puzzle locks, image cards, and simple habitat maps to answer the driving question: How can humans survive and build a sustainable colony on Mars? Add surprise mission cards such as dust storms, broken oxygen systems, low power, or food spoilage so students must make fast design choices, negotiate as a team, and defend their first five priorities. After the challenge, have teams build a quick first-draft colony sketch or mini tabletop layout, then do a short gallery share to compare which survival plans seem strongest under harsh Mars conditions. Close with a brief Mars habitat video and a class debrief on how engineering, limited resources, and teamwork shape a colony that can meet basic needs now and grow over time.

Host a “Mars Habitat Expo Night” with a gallery walk, live model tests, interactive digital simulation demos, and playful challenge stations where families, peers, and the planetarium or science museum partner can trigger dust storms, power shortages, or water loss to see how each colony responds. Teams present their working colony model with labeled water, food, shelter, air, and energy systems, explain key design trade-offs, and answer audience questions about how humans can survive and build a sustainable colony on Mars, keep people alive now, and support future growth over time. Add a “Mission Control” feedback station where visitors leave sticky-note feedback and simple rubric scores on problem solving, scientific reasoning, collaboration, and communication, plus fun passport-style stamps or votes for categories like “Best Use of Limited Resources,” “Most Creative Survival Fix,” or “Most Ready for Mars.” End with a short reflection booth where students share their biggest design revision, one failure that improved their plan, and one teamwork skill they strengthened during the project.