Exploring the story 'Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover'
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can discuss and explore the narrative of 'Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover'.
Key learning points
- ‘Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover’ is a non-fiction narrative text.
- It contains some, but not all of the features readers might expect from a non-fiction text.
- When creating the Curiosity rover, the scientists and team at NASA had to plan for lots of different eventualities.
- The Curiosity rover had to conduct its own experiments; it needed all the equipment it required to be sent with it.
- To be successful, the team tested for many years, until the rover was ready to launch on the 26th November 2011.
Keywords
Non-fiction - a genre of text which presents real events, information, or knowledge.
Features - distinctive characteristics that belong to a text type
Impression - initial feelings about a person, place or thing, gained from reading a text
Common misconception
Pupils may think that every mission succeeds in its aims due to the time, money and investment from scientists.
Draw reader's attention to the amount of time the team took to test the rover and the several failed attempts. Adults could link these processes to the processes the pupils complete in science (e.g. fair testing, hypothesising).
Teacher tip
You may wish to include (or print out) additional photographs of the Curiosity's creation process; these are freely available online.
Equipment
You need a copy of the 2023 Walker Studio edition of ‘Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover’ written and illustrated by Markus Motum, for this lesson.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is the name of the rover that this book is focused on?
Q2.Mars is also known as the __________ planet?
Q3.True or False? Scientists believe that Mars once had lakes and rivers.
Q4.How far is a typical journey to Mars?
Q5.Which of the following does a rover need to function on Mars?
Q6.What is a suitable definition for the word inhospitable?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match the keywords to their definitions.
Q2.What did the rover team not want the Curiosity to take with it to Mars?
Q3.Match the words that are found in the text to their definitions.
Q4.Which route did the rover take on its flight to the Kennedy Space Centre?
Q5.Sequence the following events in the rocket’s launch in chronological order.
Q6.True or False? Timing of the launch was not important.
To help you plan your 5 English lesson on: Exploring the story 'Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 5 English lesson on: Exploring the story 'Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 English lessons from the 'Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover': reading unit, dive into the full primary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.