As part of British Science Week our Year 5 class got the opportunity to visit the Natural History Museum to take part in a an excting STEM workshop to learn more about space explorers.
Exploring and understanding Mars has become one of the key challenges in space exploration. From remote sensing to landing rovers, our Museum scientists are actively involved in learning more about the red planet. But how do we study a planet that is millions of miles away?
In this workshop, pupils worked in small teams to design and build a LEGO Martian rover. They then coded, tested and evaluated their designs before seeing how their rovers perform on a realistic Martian surface.
- Pupils discovered the importance of the search for life on Mars, how our Museum scientists are actively involved and why modelling with materials such as LEGO bricks is important for engineers.
- Pupils followed a basic prototype to build a rover, which they then learnt to code using LEGO SPIKE Essential robotic sets and tablets.
- Pupils decided on the aims for their rover and build, to a given specification, appropriate tools for their challenge.
- In an exciting finale, pupils saw how their rovers performed on a large-scale realistic Martian surface.
