Description: One of the key NASA Mars Exploration Programs is the Mars Exploration Rover mission, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. In this mission, your students will work in teams to research Mars and find a suitable landing site for the next rover to land. After learning about the NASA Rover Mission, your team will use Ozoblockly to program their rover (their Ozobot) to visit one of the previous rover landing sites. Each team will need to learn about their selected previous rover mission, the goals of the mission, and the impact each had on NASA’s goals for the Mars Exploration Program. Each team will also need to consider the features/terrain of the Mars map and avoid areas that would be troublesome for an actual Mars rover (i.e. craters, volcanoes, etc.).

Research/Background Knowledge For the first half of the lesson students will need to conduct some general research on the Mars Rover missions. You may wish to assign each group a mission or to allow groups to select their own.

Things to think about and discuss: What is the Mars Exploration Rover Mission? What is the purpose of sending rovers to mars? What are the instruments the rovers carry and why are they important? How have the rovers met and/or exceeded their goals?