Students at École Champs Vallée in Beaumont, Alberta, have taken their science lessons out of this world by designing and building 35 unique machines as part of a school-wide initiative called the Green Moon Project. Inspired by the historic Artemis II lunar mission, which featured Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the project challenged students to create inventions that could function in space while also solving problems here on Earth.
Teacher Amanda Green, who has previously collaborated with the Canadian Space Agency, led the Grade 9 science classes through the program. The hands-on work connected classroom curriculum in electricity and environmental chemistry with lessons in coding and computational thinking. Among the 35 machines produced by the students were lunar rovers, robotics arms, motion sensor lights, automated greenhouses, and a flywheel exercise machine generator.
The Green Moon Project was supported by the Inside Education A+ for Energy grant. This funding program, now in its 20th year, supports energy and climate education projects in Alberta schools and has provided nearly $5 million to such initiatives across the province to date.
The timing of the project coincided with the April 2026 launch and successful lunar flyby of the Artemis II mission. As part of the Black Gold School Division, the students at École Champs Vallée highlighted their work as a way to engage with the real-world impact of current space exploration and energy science.
