2022 · The Physics Teacher
Mission to Mars — A Design-Based Hands-On Smartphone Experiment on Air Pressure
S. J. Spicker, A. Küpper & A. Bresges
About This Paper
This article in The Physics Teacher — the flagship journal of the American Association of Physics Teachers — presents the Mission to Mars experiment in full. Students build spacecraft prototypes from everyday materials, seal a barometric pressure sensor inside, and test the prototype under a vacuum bell jar. The paper describes the experiment's didactic framework (design-based learning), the phyphox measurement setup, classroom evaluation results, and teacher implementation notes.
The experiment appears on astro-lab.app and is also distributed through the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO).
Published In
The Physics Teacher 60(1), 47–50 (2022). "Mission to Mars – Concept and Implementation of a Design-Based (Hands-On) Smartphone Experiment Helping Students Understand the Effects Caused by Differences in Air Pressure". DOI 10.1119/10.0009109