Build advanced reading, speaking, vocabulary, and critical-thinking skills through a lesson that asks students to solve a complex problem: How humanity can establish a colony on another planet.

In this B2–C1 lesson, students prioritize choices, give specific reasons, compare alternatives, and explain causes and consequences. They begin by examining Biosphere 2, a real experiment in which eight people spent two years inside a sealed environment designed to recycle air and water and produce food. Students consider what went wrong and what the experiment can teach us about creating a self-sustaining human habitat.

They then apply those lessons to Proxima Centauri b, a rocky planet orbiting the star nearest our solar system. When an unknown organism begins spreading through a fictional underground colony, students must evaluate possible responses, weigh the pros and cons, rank competing courses of action, and defend their decisions through speaking and writing.

Along the way, students develop academic vocabulary through contextualized readings and vocabulary activities.

Ideal for CEFR B2-C1, ESL, EFL, high school English classes, independent students, adult learners and classrooms, and tutors.

This printable lesson includes:

• 12 B2–C1 vocabulary words
• 2 idioms for discussion and decision-making
• Vocabulary definitions and practice activities
• Three reading sections
• A nonfiction reading on John Allen and Biosphere 2
• Analysis of what went wrong during the Biosphere 2 experiment
• A fictional colonization scenario set on Proxima Centauri b
• Instruction in prioritizing and justifying choices
• Cause-and-effect language practice
• Comparison and consequence language
• A ranking and paragraph-writing activity
• A “Would You Rather?” speaking activity
• A final problem-solving and discussion activity
• Model responses and answer keys

Students encounter vocabulary in context throughout the readings.

Skills Practiced
• Reading comprehension
• Academic vocabulary
• Prioritizing competing options
• Justifying opinions with specific reasons
• Comparing alternatives
• Explaining causes and consequences
• Recognizing relationships between interdependent systems
• Speaking and discussion
• Paragraph writing
• Critical thinking and problem solving

Level: CEFR B2–C1

Language Skill: Prioritizing and Justifying Choices

**Topics: **Space Exploration, Biosphere 2, Colonization, Sustainability, Environmental Science