In this project, your students will work in groups to figure out how astronauts survive during a space mission like the Artemis missions. Each student becomes the team expert for one major survival system—oxygen, water, food, temperature control, or waste management—and then teaches the class through a group presentation. Every student has an assigned role and an individual grade, while the group also earns a presentation grade.

Students then extend their learning by combining their individual work into one complete group presentation that explains how astronauts survive in deep space as a whole. Each team also includes a final slide that explains one or more improvements they would make for future missions, helping students move beyond explaining current systems and into science-based thinking about future space travel.

Living in Deep Space: Astronaut Survival Systems Presentation Project Highlights

✅ Real-World Science Connection: Students investigate how real astronauts survive during a mission similar to Artemis II and apply that research to a meaningful presentation task.

✅ Collaborative, Accountable Learning: Each student has an assigned role, their own written response, their own slide contribution, and their own speaking part in the final presentation.

✅ Research + Communication Focus: Students do not just gather facts. They must explain how a survival system works, support their ideas with evidence, and communicate clearly through writing and speaking.

✅ Easy to Grade: Clear individual and group rubrics make it easy to assess each group member as well as the group as a whole.

✅ Flexible while Providing Structure: The project includes a full 4-day lesson flow (this can be shortened or extended as needed), guided research questions, planning pages, and teacher support while still allowing flexibility in presentation format.

Key Topics Explored

• Living in deep space mission challenges
• How astronauts survive during a mission
• Oxygen and air systems in space
• Water storage, use, and conservation
• Food systems and nutrition in space
• Temperature control in deep space
• Waste management and hygiene in space
• The Orion spacecraft and survival systems
• Limited space, mass, power, and supplies
• Researching real-world space mission systems
• Explaining science through writing and speaking
• Collaborating to create a group presentation

This project offers an engaging, structured way for students to explore space science through research, teamwork, writing, and presentation. It helps students build science understanding while also strengthening speaking, organization, and collaboration skills through a real-world mission scenario.

The project is designed for four class days and includes teacher instructions, student directions, role-specific research pages, an individual written submission page, a group presentation planning template, a teacher answer guide, and both individual and group rubrics.

This resource is a strong choice for teachers who want a meaningful group project that keeps every student accountable while still feeling highly engaging and relevant. Students are given clear structure, real science content, and the opportunity to explain how astronauts survive in deep space through both writing and presentation.