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This fun and easy at-home STEM activity for kids is a great way to engage with children who are excited and curious about space and the lunar landing!
Start by looking up pictures of Apollo 11, the first ship to land on the moon on July 20, 1969. What do you notice about how it was built? How do you think it was able to protect three astronauts fly through space and land on the moon?
- Build your ship out of the building materials. Your job will be to create a ship that can protect three mini marshmallow “astronauts” during a landing test — dropping it from different test heights. Some questions to consider:
• Which materials will you use?
• What can you do to protect the marshmallows? You need to make sure they don’t fly out!
- When you are ready to test your craft, make a prediction. Will your craft be able to protect the astronauts if you drop it onto the table from chest height? What about if you drop it onto the floor from chest height? What if you stand on a chair and drop it from chest height
- Test your ship. Optional: measure the height of your test locations to get more accurate data.
- If your ship did not protect the astronauts from a certain test height, try to adjust your design. What can you add or change?
- Keep designing and testing to make the best design you can – a ship that can drop from your highest test location and still protect the astronauts.
- Compare your ship to pictures of Apollo 11. What is similar? What is different?
Click here to download the PDF to recreate the lunar landing!
