Lunar Landing Project Brings Learning to Life at White Mountain Middle School

Students at White Mountain Middle School kicked off the school year with a challenge that required creativity, problem-solving, and a little bit of space exploration.

In Michael Harding’s MAPS class for grades 6–8, students took part in a Lunar Landing Project, a hands-on activity that challenged them to design and build a spacecraft capable of safely landing its “astronauts,” marshmallows, while keeping the vessel upright.

Similar to the classic egg-drop experiment, students were given limited supplies and tasked with developing their own landing systems. Before beginning, Harding introduced students to examples of how NASA uses propulsion and other systems to safely land spacecraft. From there, students had the freedom to create.

“They get to problem-solve and try different things,” Harding said. “They get to see a lot of what their peers do, and then from there they can build.”

The first landing wasn't always successful, and that was part of the lesson.

Harding described one student whose astronauts fell out during the first attempt. After watching classmates test their designs, the student identified ideas that worked, incorporated them into a new design, and successfully completed the next landing.

That process of testing, learning, redesigning, and trying again was at the heart of the project.

“It’s really nice to look at that problem-solving of seeing, ‘Oh, mine didn’t work. So how can I improve upon it this next time?’” Harding said.

For student Ronald, the appeal was a little simpler. After his first spacecraft landed but tipped over, he was already thinking about another attempt. Asked what he liked about the project, Ronald said it was a “blast” because students got to build their own spaceships and then put them to the test.

Beyond being fun, Harding said activities like the Lunar Landing Project give students opportunities to develop critical-thinking skills, learn from one another, and explore unconventional ideas.

“It gives them a time to also just be creative and try things maybe that aren’t super conventional and then see if it does work,” Harding said.

For Harding, the project was also an opportunity to begin the school year by showing students that learning can be active, creative, and unexpected. Once students realized what they would be doing, he said the entire class became engaged.

“They were all coming up with different ideas,” Harding said. “It’s going to make them excited to come to school because they never know what they’re going to do next.”

At White Mountain Middle School, sometimes learning really is rocket science, marshmallow astronauts included.