Asteroid Impact is an 8-10 class long (350-450 min) earth science curricular unit where student teams are posed with the scenario that an asteroid will impact earth. They must design the location and size of underground caverns to save the people from uninhabitable earth for one year. Driven by this adventure scenario, student teams (1) explore general and geological maps, (2) determine the area of their classroom to help determine the cavern size required, (3) learn about map scales, (4) test rocks, (5) identify important and not-so-important rock properties for underground caverns, and (6) choose a final location and size. The unit also reinforces a number of math, reading and writing standards.

Concepts

asteroids, civil engineering, engineering, rock properties, stem

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Additional Tags

caverns, civil engineering project, experimental data, integrated teaching and learning program and laboratory, teachengineering, teachengineering: asteroid impact, civil engineering projects

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 3 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)