The space race: Apollo 13

Objective & content

This Look Closer episode (The space race mini-series, episode 164) is a short documentary about the Apollo 13 mission. In April 1970, on the way to the Moon with Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, an oxygen tank exploded, the spacecraft lost a lot of its oxygen and electricity, and the Moon landing was cancelled. The astronauts moved into the lunar module, which became their lifeboat, although it was made for two people for about two days. When carbon dioxide began to build up, the spare filters from the other part of the spacecraft were square and the holes were round. The episode looks closer at the object that solved the problem: engineers on the ground invented it from plastic bags, cardboard, hoses and tape, explained it on the radio step by step, and the astronauts built it. The three men landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on 17 April 1970, and Jim Lovell later called the mission a successful failure. The narration is in the past simple, with some passive forms (The Moon landing was cancelled, it was made for two people) and relative clauses; no grammar point is taught. It is a listening comprehension episode: learners listen, then answer the 10 questions in the app: 7 on facts and 3 on vocabulary (lunar module, carbon dioxide and filters).

Materials & prerequisites

The folder holds the audio, the slideshow and the script; there is no lesson plan. The pupil pack and the teacher pack (answers highlighted) are one A4 page each, with the text, three photos (the damaged service module, the filter adapter inside the lunar module, the spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean after landing), the key words and the 10 questions; a pupil sheet and a teacher sheet with the answer key come with them. The text ends with an open question (Was Apollo 13 a failure or a success?). Learners should know the past simple of common verbs and be able to read dates and large numbers. The script explains its new words as it goes (lunar module, carbon dioxide, filters).

Curriculum alignment

Tagged c4-school-and-society ("École et société") and c4-encountering-others ("Rencontre avec l'autre"), Cycle 4 (3e). The episode targets CEFR level B1-.