Landing Site Topography

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. 

• How do we identify different landforms and how rough the surface is? 
• How can we use maps of landforms (the shape of the land) to choose a landing site on Mars? 

• Interpret data from topographic maps to identify safe locations to land and landforms that might indicate water was present on Mars. 

• Consider teaching about contour lines by tracing the layers of the moonscape from Worlds Apart Activity 4 and creating a topo map. 
• The pages of a thick paperback book can be manipulated to show a steep or shallow slope where every page edge is a contour line. 

• Contour lines never cross, unless there is an overhanging cliff large enough to appear on a topographic map. 

Contour: a line on a map that represents a constant elevation 

Topography: the arrangement, elevation, or height of the landforms in an area