Mineral Fingerprinting
Youth identify minerals that indicate past water or volcanism at each of four landing sites.
Guiding Questions
- How can scientists find out whether life could have existed on Mars?
- How do we know how old Mars rocks are?
- How can we use infrared spectroscopy to identify a scientifically interesting landing site?
TimingSetup
The Educator Guide has a script, materials list, and prep directions. Be sure to have it open and ready to help guide you through every activity.
- If you have not already completed the prep for Science Series Activity 1, please refer to the S1 card for preparation.
- Revisit the PLANETS Science Series Educator Guide if it has been a week or more since you completed Science Series Activity 1.
- For this activity you will need Science Notebooks for each youth, plus Data Packets and Landing Ellipses for each group.
Youth Will Know
They can identify minerals on Mars by looking at graphs of the light they reflect created by remote sensing technology (spectrometers).
Youth Will Do
- Interpret the unique spectral “fingerprints” of different minerals to identify them.
- Apply their knowledge of which minerals are evidence of past water when evaluating landing sites.
Did you know?
Some animals can see more colors than us. Butterflies can see ultraviolet light and certain reptiles can detect infrared light.
Quick Tips
- Consider showing one or more videos to youth to review the concepts.
- “Spectrum” is singular and “spectra” is the plural form of the same word.