Tag: rm 8 literacy

Our New Home? – Response to Text

Mars –
Our New Home?

Think carefully about each question, and use evidence from the texts to support your conclusions. Write your answers in full sentences, and use explanations and examples where needed.

Surface Level: Find the Answer in the Text
What are some similarities between Earth and Mars?

Both planets have valleys and mountains, weather and seasons, volcanoes, and ice caps.

Humans would find it challenging to live on Mars without what?

Humans would find it challenging to live on Mars without a spacesuit and a helmet because Mars atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide and without a helmet and a spacesuit you would last 2 minutes.

What are the 3 things that the article says are making our planet Earth unlivable?

Pollution, Climate change, and global warming are making the planet earth less livable.
Scientists and engineers like Elon Musk are concerned about the future and are exploring the possibility of moving to mars if earth gets too damaged.

Inference: Use Clues from the Text to Think of an Answer
Explain in your own words why scientists are exploring the possibility of a move to Mars?

They are exploring because just in case earth might get too damaged that we might move to Mars in the future, they are just getting prepared for the future.

What are some challenges that humans would face if there was a move to Mars?

They would have a hard time breathing, they would suffocate, and it would make their blood boil. Moving to mars would be a very big change because mars air pressure is very low : at 600 pascals. Only about 0.6 percent of earth. Resulting in a severe form of the bends including ruptured lungs , dangerously swollen skin and swollen body tissue.

Unfamiliar Words: Clarifying Language that may cause Misunderstanding

Word
Sentence from the text
Definition
Enthusiast
A planet called Mars, located 342 million kilometres away from Earth, has captured the imagination of scientists and space enthusiasts alike. While Earth is our home.
Enthusiasts means that a person who is very interested in a particular activity or subject.

Potential
Mars holds the potential for us to explore and perhaps even call it our new home someday. While it’s an exciting idea, we must remember that our primary focus should be on taking care of Earth.
Potential means that having or showing the capacity to develop something in the future.

Abundant
While Earth is beautiful and abundant, we must face the reality that our actions are harming our planet. Pollution, climate change, and the overuse of natural resources are making Earth less livable.
Abundant means existing or available in large quantities; plentiful.

Generate
Moving to Mars is no easy feat. There are many challenges to overcome. For example, the journey to Mars takes several months, and the harsh conditions on the planet pose risks to our health. We would need to find ways to grow food, create sustainable habitats, and generate the resources necessary for survival.

Generate means produce or create.

lobal Inferencing: Making Connections between the Text and the Wider World

 

Would you want to be one of the first people living on Mars?

Come up with solid reasons for your choice, and provide evidence, and examples to support your reasons.

 

I wouldn’t want to live on mars because you would have to wear a spacesuit and a helmet which would be very irritating. Mars air pressure is pretty low so you would suffocate and your blood would boil. On Mars there is a lack of water and low gravity. Mars is also unfit for human life because Mars atmosphere is 99% carbon dioxide. The surface of the planet is too cold to sustain human life.

Explanatory Writing

Your task is to explain

 what Climate Change is, and what impact it has on Earth.

 

Begin your writing here:Climate change is a big health threat facing humanity; it can also harm animals. Climate impacts are already harming health, through air pollution, disease, extreme weather events, forced displacement, pressures on mental health, and increased hunger and poor nutrition in places where we cannot grow or find food.

Climate change affects the environment because of the intense droughts, storms, heat waves rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans can harm animals and destroy their habitats, climate change can also harm the livelihoods and the communities.

We need to try and slow down climate change because a warmer climate increases public health challenges like heat illnesses, increases in borne diseases, and decreased access to safe clean food and water. If we don’t slow down climate change it will decrease in sea ice and an increase in permafrost thawing. 

 Human activity is the main cause of climate change, people burn fossil fuels and convert land from forests to agriculture. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, people have burned more and more fossil fuels and changed vast areas of land from forests to farmland.