Lesson video

Hi there.

Welcome to the final lesson in this reading unit.

My name is Mr. Charlesworth.

For today's lesson, you are going to need a copy of the text "Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover." It's written and illustrated by Markus Motum.

If you haven't got a copy to hand already, pause the video now whilst you do so.

Great work.

Now we're ready to start.

In today's lesson, we are going to be exploring the themes of the text, as well as finding out what's happened on Mars since the text was published.

Let's get started.

The lesson outcome is I can identify and engage with the key themes in "Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover." The key words are.

My turn, your turn.

Theme.

Convey.

Innovation.

Let's try those once more.

Theme.

Convey.

Innovation.

Great work.

Let's now have a look at the definitions.

A theme is a big idea, topic, or message that recurs within a text.

Recurs means to repeat.

To convey means to communicate a message to the reader directly or indirectly.

And finally, innovation is the process of bringing about new ideas, methods, products, or solutions that have a significant positive impact and value.

Don't worry if you're unsure about any of the keywords.

We'll be exploring them throughout the lesson.

In today's lesson, we're going to be exploring and engaging with themes in the text "Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover." We're going to begin by returning to the text as a whole and thinking about things that still make us curious from having read the text, before then identifying and reflecting on key themes that we find.

Let's begin by exploring what's happened to the Curiosity rover since the book was published.

"Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover" is written and illustrated by Markus Motum.

Stuart Atkinson, who's an astronomy expert, was consulted on the text.

Here's a quick recap about what we know so far.

The narrative picture book text shares some similarities with other non-fiction texts.

Reading around a text can give readers a better understanding of the subject matter and possible themes.

And finally, the text provides answers to some questions, however some are still being explored.

We're going to begin today's lesson by looking at the end of the text.

"Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover" ends with a quote from a pupil who named it, Clara Ma.

I'd like you to refer to pages 45 and 46 and answer the following question.

Reflecting on the quote, what does the quote mean to you? You might like to reread it with your partner or independently or with an adult.

Pause the video now whilst you answer the question.

Well done.

There are lots of possible things you might have talked about.

Let's have a look at two examples.

Sam says, this quote is inspiring.

It makes me think about how I should be curious in my own learning.

And Aisha says, this quote makes me feel connected.

It says that we're all explorers and scientists.

We should never tyre of asking questions and finding out about new and exciting things.

I wonder if your responses were similar or different to these two.

It's important to remember that just like our reading identity, our reflections will be unique to us.

Here's our first check for understanding.

True or false? "Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover" answers all the questions it raises.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Well noticed, it's false.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is it because A, the text follows the Curiosity rover as it explores Mars and makes discoveries? Or B, the text doesn't give the reader all the answers.

It may want to make them curious and inspire them to find out more.

Which justification best fits with the original statement? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Well done.

The second justification links better with the original statement because the text doesn't give away all of the answers.

It might want to make the reader curious to find out more and explore themselves.

We'll be looking at some of the questions that we still have having read the text towards the end of this lesson.

Since the text publication, the Curiosity rover has continued to explore Mars' surface.

In December of 2023, the team at NASA released an animated image showing Mars from sunrise to sunset.

This animation is included on the right-hand side of the screen.

You can see it's been captured by the HazCam cameras because it's been recorded in black and white.

What I'd like you to do now is to think about what you notice.

What questions does this animation inspire you to ask? Watch the animation before then pausing to talk to your partner about the questions it inspires to ask.

Fantastic work.

Perhaps you had a question just like Sofia.

She says that she can see the Curiosity's wheels.

It casts a shadow as the sun moves.

She can also notice some clouds in the background.

She wonders if Mars has a similar weather pattern to Earth.

I wonder if you're able to find out the answer for Sofia too.

We're now going to find out a little bit more about the Mars rover missions that followed Curiosity.

In 2020, the team at NASA launched another rover called Perseverance.

Perhaps you're familiar with this word from school.

It's used a lot.

To persevere is to keep going, to be determined.

I wonder what differences do you notice compared to the Curiosity rover? You can see an image of the Perseverance in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.

The image is annotated with labels to give you some support.

Pause the video now whilst you discuss the question with your partner.

There are a few key differences between the two rovers.

Just like Jun, I noticed that the Perseverance rover had a different wheel design.

That's probably as a result of the Curiosity's exploration and perhaps some difficulties that the NASA team ran into.

It also has a turret, which allows it to pick up heavier equipment or resources.

I wonder if you picked up similar things too, Jun.

Here's our next check for understanding.

Which of the following is true about the Mars Perseverance rover? Is it A, the majority of the Perseverance rover's cameras are in colour.

B, the Perseverance rover's cameras are only in black and white.

C, the Perseverance rover was launched in 2019.

Or D, the Perseverance rover is able to use heavier equipment and tools.

There may be more than one correct answer.

Pause the video now whilst you answer the question.

Well noticed.

The answers here are A and D.

The Perseverance rover has cameras that record in colour lots more than the Curiosity.

And the rover is able to use heavier equipment and tools with the turret that it's got.

In our task, I'd like you to refer to page 43.

It says through exploration and investigation, the Curiosity has provided many answers to questions.

However, this has led to many new questions.

I'd like you to reflect on the following question with your partner.

What do you think Markus Motum means by this? You might like to use the photographs and maps below to support your discussion.

There's a photograph that the Curiosity's taken of its tyre tracks as it tries to move up towards Mount Sharp.

There's an annotated image which is being put into colour to show different areas of Mars that it's discovered, and some of the rover's equipment.

And finally, here's a map, which shows its landing site plus where the Curiosity rovers got up to as of March 2024.

Return back to the statement that Curiosity has provided many answers, but it's led to many new questions.

What do you think the author meant by this? Pause the video now whilst you discuss with your partner.

I hope you were impressed with the photographs as I was.

They made me think of lots of new questions and how to relate it back to the text.

Let's have a look at two possible examples.

Andeep says, I think that Markus Motum meant that by discovering new information about Mars, the team at NASA would form new questions and continue to learn about the planet.

Jacob mentions that new questions might be based on new areas that the rover is discovering on Mars' surface and how the design of the rover can be further improved, for example, the wheels.

Jacobs remembered that one of the key differences between the Curiosity rover and the Perseverance rover.

Perhaps he thought about the middle image with all of the places that the rovers visited and all the places it's still got left to explore.

I wonder if your discussion was similar to Andeep and Jacob's or different.

In the second part of the lesson, we are going to be identifying and reflecting on some of the themes that could be found within the text.

A theme is a big idea, topic, or message that recurs within a text.

Within literature, authors use techniques to convey themes to the reader.

Well noticed on two of our keywords.

These themes often mirror issues and topics that we encounter in our own lives, making the text relatable to the reader.

Here are a few examples of themes.

You can have themes of friendship, of family, of love, courage, and betrayal, as well as themes of good versus evil, death, protection, loneliness, and survival.

Perhaps you're already thinking about some of the themes that you might have related to the text already.

Identifying themes within a text involves inference.

That sometimes referred to as reading between the lines.

Well remembered.

Themes are not explicitly stated within a text.

Authors commonly use repetition to convey themes to the reader.

There are a few ways that you can identify themes within a text.

You can consider the actions and characteristics of people, or in this case, objects within the text.

You can identify cases of repetition.

Whether that's repetition of actions, emotions, or character traits.

You can search for deeper meaning using inference, reading between the lines.

And you can consider the overall message of the text.

Whether it has a moral, whether it's teaching us something, or maybe it's inspiring us to learn more.

There are many possible themes that can be drawn out from the text.

Readers may interpret themes and their importance differently.

Here are a few that I've drawn out from the text.

There's a theme of exploration, of awe and wonder, of innovation, and discovery.

The term innovation is one of our key words.

Well remembered.

It's the process of bringing about new ideas, methods, or products or solutions that have a significant positive impact and value.

So in relation to the text here, it's thinking about how the team at NASA thought up new ideas, were really creative, and found solutions to some of the problems that they might experience when they sent the Curiosity rover to Mars.

Lots of new technology and scientific discovery would've happened in the process, I'm sure.

Here's our final check for understanding.

Can you match the theme to how it's conveyed in the text? On the left-hand side, we have the themes of discovery, innovation, and awe and wonder.

And on the right-hand side, we've got how they might be conveyed in the text.

Have a read through the three statements and match them to the themes.

Pause the video now whilst you do so.

Great work.

In terms of the themes, the theme of discovery, I'd be looking for something that tells us about something new that's been discovered on the surface of Mars.

So in this case, the theme of discovery links to the Curiosity rover finding evidence of past water, including lake beds.

In terms of the theme of innovation, I remember that innovation links to new ideas or discoveries, so we're looking perhaps for new types of technology.

And that must link to the top statement.

The NASA team gave Curiosity a nuclear-powered battery, which has powered the rover for several years.

This was something different compared to the other rover missions, which relied on a different form of battery.

Finally, for awe and wonder, we're looking for things that have inspired us.

The Curiosity rover has captured stunning images of the Martian landscape and observed weather patterns such as dust storms and seasonal changes.

I can't help but be inspired by these images.

I hope you are too.

Well done if you match them all correctly.

Our final task is split into two parts.

In the first part, I'd like you to discuss what other themes appear throughout the text.

We've got the themes I've already noted which are, exploration, awe and wonder, innovation, and discovery.

I wonder if you can think of some other themes.

Some themes are more complex and encourage us to consider their meaning.

You can also perhaps link some themes to subjects that you study in school.

Perhaps there's other areas of learning that you might link from the text.

Pause the video now whilst you discuss the question with your partner.

I hope you're able to discuss and think about a range of different themes.

Here are a few that you might have talked about.

There's the theme of collaboration, so the NASA team and the scientists working together to achieve a common goal.

There's a theme of hope, not only in the Curiosity rover landing, but also in what it's about to discover.

There's the key theme of curiosity, which links to the text title and the rover's name.

But obviously it also links to the text itself.

It makes us curious to find out more about the natural world and our universe.

You might have mentioned the theme of space.

This focuses just on Mars, but there are other planets.

I wonder if NASA are looking at exploring them too.

You've got themes of science and technology, which link to subjects that are studied at school, as well as engineering and mathematics.

These subjects definitely link to the text because the team at NASA would have had to have thought really carefully about the mission itself and how to get the rover there safely.

Finally, you might have talked about the theme of determination, which links to the rover mission that followed, Perseverance.

Well remembered.

To be determined is to never give up, to keep striving.

It's important to remember that these are just some of the themes.

There are many, many more.

"Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover" explores the theme of curiosity through the rover's exploration of Mars, the questions it answers, and the new questions that arise as a result.

In the final part of this task, I'd like you to answer the following questions.

What messages or take-away ideas do you have from reading the text? A take-away idea is something that you think about once you've finished reading.

It's perhaps something that stays with you for a while.

The second question is having read the text, what are you now curious to find out? Well remembered.

This links really nicely to the question that we asked at the beginning of the unit two.

Is there anything that's still unanswered or something that you want to discover more about now? You might like to use the sentence stems a take-away idea I had after reading the text was, and I'm curious to find out about.

Pause the video now whilst you complete the task with your partner.

The text made me think about lots of different things.

So these are just two possible examples for the answers.

After reading the text, I've reflected on the time, effort, and practise that the team at NASA have put in to make the mission as successful as possible.

They use every opportunity to learn and be curious.

That makes me think of school.

It's really important to use every opportunity to learn and be as curious as possible about the world around us and the universe.

I wonder what your take-away idea was.

In terms of being curious, I'm curious to find out about the Perseverance mission and what it has discovered compared the Curiosity rover.

I wonder if it's landed on a different section of Mars and is it exploring different objectives and different aims. I also wonder what's the Curiosity up to right now? If these lessons have inspired you, you might wish to continue to research NASA's Mars missions through their website.

It's full of amazing photographs and videos and updates on the rover's missions.

In today's lesson, we've been exploring and engaging with themes in the text "Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover." Since the text publication, the Curiosity rovers has continued to explore Mars' surface.

The the team at NASA continue to innovate, making positive changes to the next rover, Perseverance.

We've learned that revisiting a text can allow readers to discuss questions that focus on themes that are not explicitly stated in the text.

A theme is a big idea, topic, or message that recurs within a text.

Finally, the theme of curiosity is explored through the rover's exploration of Mars, the questions it answers, and the new questions that arise as a result.

I really enjoyed exploring this wonderful text with you.

I'm looking forward to working with you again soon.

Well done for all your hard work.