Mars Colony -- What would life on Mars be like?

Click here to download printable directions to make a 3-D scene.

Writing Prompt: look up a piece of technology that scientists are developing, but hasn't happened yet.  Write a story including this fact.

It's opening night! I've spent the last two weeks working with a group of teens who are putting on a musical about a colony on Mars.  The musical is written by family friends who are also directing.  I always learn so much when I spend time working on a production. 

Shannon West wrote Mars Colony 2054 after researching the true plans of Mars One to put a colony there by 2024.  She decided to set the musical a few decades later and keep the production science fiction: something that could happen if there was new technology.  (In other words, there were no little green men.)

This is a process I want my students to think about.  They can research a new technology and write a story from the facts they find.  The three-dimensional scene will illustrate the setting or maybe a scene from their story.  Here are the steps:

First, cut a square from a 9 X 12 piece of paper, by folding one corner to a point on the opposite side three inches from the bottom.  Cut off this three inch extra, but save it to create the scene.

Next, fold the square on the diagonal both directions and cut only half way up one of the diagonal lines. Do not cut the paper all the way through.

Now fold one of the flaps onto the other and glue them together.  You should have a triangular pyramid with one side open.

 

Now add the details for your scene.  I keep a paper scrap box around so that I'm not cutting up new paper for every project.

 

In addition, I will be giving away a copy of Coded Messages: Order of Operations July 25-28.  Students use what they know about PEMDAS to complete function tables and solve coded messages.