< Remote Sensing

How to Teach These Units

Take a little time to prepare and get ready to teach. The pages linked below give you an easy-to-follow checklist and resources that get you prepared for facilitating PLANETS activities.

3. Red Planet Places: Exploring Landforms on Mars

Learners examine images of landforms on Mars and Earth to find evidence of past water.

Guiding Question

How can landforms help us choose a landing site on Mars?

Activity Downloads

Activity Timing

10 MIN. Get Ready & Team Up

20 MIN. Search for Evidence of Water

15 MIN. Reflect

45 MIN. TOTAL

Setup: Prep Time 60 min

  • Print resources.

*See Materials & Preparation in the Educator Guide linked above for full info.

21st Century Skills

  • Critical Thinking

Science Practices

  • Analyzing & Interpreting Data

Learners Will Do

  • Recognize landforms on Mars that provide evidence of past water.

Learners Will Know

  • Scientists examine landforms to learn about the past history and climate of a location.

Connecting Across Activities

  • Activity 2: Introducing Landforms: Last time, learners generated questions about Mars and explored how wind and water can make landforms on a planet’s surface using models.
  • Activity 3: Exploring Landforms on Mars: Today, learners act as scientists to examine images of landforms on Mars. These images are the first set of data they will use to choose a landing site.
  • Activity 4: Introducing Topography: Next time, they will deepen their understanding of landforms by considering topography.

Level Up!

  • If you are using the advanced version of this pathway with four possible landing sites, use the advanced version of the Science Activity 3 Landforms on Mars Data Packet with Level Up (PDF) and add columns titled “Nili Fossae” and “Iani Chaos” to the Our Ideas poster.

  • Although this activity lists two possible landing sites, if you have time, the activity is more interesting and enriching with four choices. See the website for the additional landing site data and directions.
  • Tell learners that the Viking landers had landing ellipses more than 100 km long, but improvements in science and engineering have shrunk the uncertainty of Mars landings down to within just a few kilometers. Future missions may be able to land with pinpoint accuracy.
  • Have learners find out more about the mission types NASA uses to gather information about a planetary body surface. For Mars, these include the remote sensing instruments Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO); High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), landers and rovers (Insight, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity), and sample return (Perseverance). On the Moon, the Apollo and Artemis missions included sample return. (10 min.)