Design a Moon Colony: STEM/STEAM Project Bundle!

Lesson Overview

Designing a city on the Moon is a real multidisciplinary project with creative and critical thinking a central part of the process. Students will need to consider questions like: How will colonists get food? What is the lunar environment like? Will our colony have a government? How do we prevent boredom? Students will apply scientific concepts, math skills, critical thinking, research, and engineering design to plan a long-term habitat on the Moon.

Click here to watch student project examples.

Students learn about current efforts to colonize the Moon and the harsh environment of this barren world. Students research and brainstorm engineering and mental health design solutions to keep colonists alive, healthy, and happy. The final colony design is put to the test with various scenarios such as meteorites, power loss, or communication issues. Educators may take this project a step further by providing students with materials to build the final colony design and present solutions. 

Product 1: Explore the Moon

Teach students all about the Moon through interactive games and activities! These games have students moving, creating, and learning basic facts about the Moon including information on temperature, gravity, geography, atmosphere, and location. Activities require minimal supplies such as paper and a projector.

Product 2: STEM Project Guide

This complete project guide takes students through the engineering design process to think about, research, design, and build a colony on the Moon! Student handouts include a reflection on society on Earth, learning about the Moon, research, brainstorming solutions, designing colony, testing colony against scenarios, and final design layout. Includes video resource links for instructors.

Product 3: Mission to Moon Planning Game

Students create colony teams and complete the Mission to Moon: Planning Game to determine design components of a colony on the Moon. Students consider various design solutions on engineering systems (food, water, power, oxygen, communication, and science labs) and mental health considerations (social, hygiene, exercise, sleeping, and entertainment). For each system, students read background cards to weigh the pros and cons while staying within budget and power constraints and maximizing human happiness. Each solution card provides details that are based on real technologies being developed by NASA. Once the solutions are determined, students create a scale-model of a Moon colony to represent location and architectural components.

Product 4: Digital Version

A simplified version of the project is created with editable Google Slides to guide your students through all phases of the project: reflection, understanding of the Moon, research, designing, and building the lunar base.

Below are the different systems that teams will explore:

• Food

• Energy

• Water

• Air

• Transportation

• Communication

• Science Experiments

• Eating areas

• Hygiene

• Exercise

• Sleeping

• Entertainment

• Colony Services