TYLER (KYTX) - Tyler ISD teachers are setting their sites, and lesson plans, on another planet.
Lessons on Mars will give your kids hands on learning in the classroom far beyond planet earth.
From the landscape on Mars, to math, it's a hands on lesson from a NASA team member traveling the country to teach this Mars lesson plan to local educators.
"What really stuck out to me is the connections we can make for our children," says Andre Williams, a 5th grade teacher at Caldwell Elementary.
She's taking notes about how Mars can apply directly to the classroom, without her students taking off for space.
"Become more creative and higher order thinkers and also relates across all curriculums," says Williams.
Thirty-thousand students across the country have already taken part in the Mars Bound Program, enhancing STEM studies -- science, technology, engineering and math.
Tackling probabilities, even trigonometry.
"It seems challenging when we say 5th and 6th graders can do trig, but it's taking away that fear and doing it before they even know it," says Sheri Klug-Boonstra, the Director of Mars Education with NASA.
Forget books and worksheets, why not bring a piece of Mars right to the classroom.
"The possibilities of being explorers is something really, really exciting and it's absolutely something they can do, because they are," says Klug-Boonstra.
Students can even have access through NASA to get online and take pictures on Mars, exploring the terrain.
"Higher order thinking, problem solving, math, communications. Being able to work together," says Williams.
New modes of learning, stemming into the future.
These programs were developed based on lessons learned from Mars missions.
The tools will be used in classrooms at Boulter Middle School and Caldwell Elementary starting in the fall.
