Mars Outpost - Inquiry-Based Lesson - Awesome English

Hi! I’m Dan from @awesomeenglish101. I am a passionate teacher with a Master's in Education and nearly two decades of teaching experience. I love teaching Literacy, especially writing! Together with writing, these inquiry-based lessons aim to incorporate a range of different subjects and concepts into a project. Lessons follow the inquiry cycle of investigate, design, create and evaluate.

In this video, I give step-by-step instructions on how to design design an outpost on Mars. Students are encouraged to write a procedural text or other text types to support their Mars exploration project. Science and mathematics can be integrated into the lesson, students can use measuring skills, area, perimeter and volume to develop their project. They can also explore concepts around space travel and exploration. Students could even build a model of their Mars outpost, create a video or give a presentation.

This video can be used in class by educators to capture students’ attention and engage them in the writing process and mathematics. It can also be used by students for independent work with opportunities to reflect and review their own writing and ability to work with measurement. These videos offer explicit instruction, delivered in an authentic style that promotes a love of writing and also incorporates mathematics. Have fun and enjoy improving!