1. Pretend you are living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like.
Search and deductive reasoning

2. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide. They not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Resources
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3. About this Lesson
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading—Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.9 Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city.
She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change.
A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names.

4. Bing in the Classroom program Resources
9/10/ :05 PM
Bing in the Classroom program Resources
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© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

5. Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like.

6. Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like. 1
Image Search
How would you describe what the landscape around you looks like? 2
Web Search
How exactly are you writing this letter? What tools do you need to write a letter on Mars compared to writing a letter on Earth? 3
How does it feel, in terms of temperature and atmosphere, to be on Mars? 4
How are you spending your days? What interesting sites have you seen on Mars? 5
Have you found any life on Mars? How would you describe these living beings?

7. Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like.
5 minutes

8. Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like. 1
Image Search
How would you describe what the landscape around you looks like? 2
Web Search
How exactly are you writing this letter? What tools do you need to write a letter on Mars compared to writing a letter on Earth? 3
How does it feel, in terms of temperature and atmosphere, to be on Mars? 4
How are you spending your days? What interesting sites have you seen on Mars? 5
Have you found any life on Mars? How would you describe these living beings?

9. 9/10/ :05 PM
Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like. 1
Image Search
How would you describe what the landscape around you looks like? 2
Web Search
How exactly are you writing this letter? What tools do you need to write a letter on Mars compared to writing a letter on Earth? 3
How does it feel, in terms of temperature and atmosphere, to be on Mars? 4
How are you spending your days? What interesting sites have you seen on Mars? 5
Have you found any life on Mars? How would you describe these living beings?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: Mars”, “Bing/Images: surface of Mars”).
Answers will vary. Students should look at images of the surface of Mars (such as the ones found here: and describe what they see. Adjectives used to write about it may include “red”, “brown”, “orange”, “rocky”, “dry”, “empty”, “barren”, etc…
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

10. 9/10/ :05 PM
Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like. 1
Image Search
How would you describe what the landscape around you looks like? 2
Web Search
How exactly are you writing this letter? What tools do you need to write a letter on Mars compared to writing a letter on Earth? 3
How does it feel, in terms of temperature and atmosphere, to be on Mars? 4
How are you spending your days? What interesting sites have you seen on Mars? 5
Have you found any life on Mars? How would you describe these living beings?
(Possible queries: “for kids, how do people write in space?”, “for kids, how to write from space”, “writing without gravity”).
This question serves as an opportunity for students to think about how basic tasks would change without gravity. They should look up how someone could write without gravity and how this may require a slightly different tool from what she would use to write on Earth. Answers will vary.
From
The Space Pen (also known as the Zero Gravity Pen), marketed by Fisher Space Pen Company is a pen that uses pressurized ink cartridges and is able to write in zero gravity, underwater, over wet and greasy paper, at any angle, and in a very wide range of temperatures. The Fisher Space Pen was invented by American industrialist and pen manufacturer Paul C. Fisher and is manufactured in Boulder City, Nevada, United States of America. Paul C. Fisher first patented the AG7 "anti gravity" pen in Pens claiming some or all of the same abilities have also appeared on the market from other manufacturers.
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

11. 9/10/ :05 PM
Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like. 1
Image Search
How would you describe what the landscape around you looks like? 2
Web Search
How exactly are you writing this letter? What tools do you need to write a letter on Mars compared to writing a letter on Earth? 3
How does it feel, in terms of temperature and atmosphere, to be on Mars? 4
How are you spending your days? What interesting sites have you seen on Mars? 5
Have you found any life on Mars? How would you describe these living beings?
(Possible queries “for kids, climate of Mars”, “for kids, temperature on Mars”).
From
Mars' thin atmosphere and its greater distance from the sun mean that Mars is much colder than Earth The average temperature is about minus 80 degrees F (minus 60 degrees C), although it can vary from minus 195 degrees F (minus 125 degrees C) near the poles during the winter to as much as a comfortable 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) at midday near the equator. The atmosphere of Mars is also roughly 100 times thinner than Earth's, but it is still thick enough to support weather, clouds, and winds.
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

12. 9/10/ :05 PM
Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like. 1
Image Search
How would you describe what the landscape around you looks like? 2
Web Search
How exactly are you writing this letter? What tools do you need to write a letter on Mars compared to writing a letter on Earth? 3
How does it feel, in terms of temperature and atmosphere, to be on Mars? 4
How are you spending your days? What interesting sites have you seen on Mars? 5
Have you found any life on Mars? How would you describe these living beings?
(Possible queries: “for kids, what would life on Mars be like?”, “for kids, astronauts on Mars”).
Answers will vary. For example, from
Mars has some great scenery! While you're there, be sure to check out the volcano, Olympus Mons, the biggest mountain in the entire solar system. Its base is large enough to cover the entire state of Montana and Rhode Island could fit comfortably in its crater! It is thought that some of Mars' giant canyons and other surface features were formed from water flowing over the surface a long time ago when Mars was much warmer and may have supported life. Another bonus of Martian scenery: two moons in the nighttime sky-- Phobos and Deimos.
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

13. 9/10/ :05 PM
Living on Mars
Pretend you are living on Mars. Write a letter to your family or friends describing what life on Mars is like. 1
Image Search
How would you describe what the landscape around you looks like? 2
Web Search
How exactly are you writing this letter? What tools do you need to write a letter on Mars compared to writing a letter on Earth? 3
How does it feel, in terms of temperature and atmosphere, to be on Mars? 4
How are you spending your days? What interesting sites have you seen on Mars? 5
Have you found any life on Mars? How would you describe these living beings?
(Possible queries: “for kids, is there life on Mars?”, “for kids, what kind of life is found on Mars?”).
From
Even with the largest telescopes it is very hard to see much detail on Mars. In the late 1800s, some scientists thought they could see straight lines crossing the planet's surface. These lines joined greenish areas that looked as if they were covered by plants. These scientists thought that the straight lines were canals built by Martians to carry water to their crops. Spacecraft pictures have shown that these canals do not exist. There is no sign of any life – plants or intelligent Martians - on the planet. We now know that Mars is a very cold, dry planet, where liquid water cannot exist on the surface. However, there are large areas of water ice at the polar caps. There is also a lot of ice in the frozen ground – much like the permafrost areas of northern Canada and Russia. Large, dry channels also show that there was once a lot of running water on the surface. Recent results from Mars Express and other spacecraft show that there may be liquid water deep underground. If Mars was once warmer and wetter, life may have begun on the red planet. Simple life, such as bacteria, may still exist beneath the frozen surface.
Students should understand from this description, or others like it, that there is probably not life on Mars, though there may have been at one time in history. If there is life on Mars, it probably exists in the very simple form of bacteria beneath the surface.
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.