The Cloud 9 Colony team presents their project at a public exhibition night. Using their models, products, and promotional materials, they compete with other colony groups to enlist colonists and “sell tickets” to the spacecraft leaving for Cloud 9. (Number of tickets sold plus visitor comments are one measure of project success).

Exo-planet Enterprises: Grade 11 Interdisciplinary Project

Interdisciplinary, grade 11: Humanities and Science, with “guest support & feedback” from Art and Engineering teachers and outside experts

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The task: As part of a unit on utopian societies (history standards) and literature (ELA), groups of 4 students work together to design a utopian colony on a moon or planet (of their choosing) in our solar system that can support 1000 colonists indefinitely, including scientifically feasible food, waste, water and air, government, education, social, and economic systems

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The work structure: Students serve as “experts” in one of four roles: Social Scientist, Artist, Life Scientist, and Engineer. Each takes the lead in R & D related to their role, then shares their learning and drafts of products with the group for feedback. Most of the products, however, are “ensemble performances” to which all contribute research, work, and expertise.

Exoplanet Enterprises Project Description

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• Written proposal for the colony, presented to the teacher to discuss, “pressure-test,” and refine
• Co-created project plan with roles, tasks, deadlines, and meeting/work schedule
• Map of landing site (chosen and justified using scientific facts)
• A charter/constitution for the colony (based on authentic historical examples)
• Diagrams of systems with evidence they would work on the selected exoplanet (pressure, temperature, resources)
• Multi-year history of the colony starting with why they left Earth
• Artwork and promotional materials to recruit colonists
• Public presentation at a “recruitment fair”
• Published book with all products, sources, student bios, and descriptions of the process (e.g. revisions of prototypes based on feedback)
• Individual logs of their work, research process, decisions and rationales, the feedback they received and how they applied it.
• End-of-unit reflection essay and self-assessment

Products/Deliverables (“Communication” Focus):

Exo-planet Enterprises:

Work Product Examples

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Digital versions of Published Books:

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United Colonials of the Moon

Axis Mundi (Venus)

The “Life Scientist” from the Axis Mundi team works on a low-res prototype of a space suit that can withstand the temperature, pressure, and atmospheric conditions required to conduct routine maintenance on a colony of dirigibles floating above Venus.

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He will present and explain his design to his team, a teacher, and a scientist in multiple rounds of feedback.

To see more student work and learn more about the project and the teacher who designed it, read this story from the NGLC website.