Grade 6 Science Vocabulary Cards | Geology on Mars | Landforms, Rocks & Evidence

Help students build a strong understanding of Martian geology, landforms, rocks, erosion, volcanism, remote sensing, and evidence of past water with this engaging Grade 6 Geology on Mars Science Vocabulary Card Set.

This resource includes 50 vocabulary cards designed to strengthen science language through repeated reading, speaking, and application. Each card includes a student-friendly meaning, a science-based example sentence, and three built-in prompts: How do you spell ___?, What is ___?, and Use ___ in a sentence.

Students work with essential geology concepts such as basalt, canyon, channel, conglomerate, deposition, erosion, fossil, geologic process, igneous rock, impact crater, landform, lava, magma, mineral, sediment, sedimentary rock, surface, and weathering. These terms help students describe how planetary surfaces form and change over time.

The set also explores how scientists investigate Mars using vocabulary such as rover, remote sensing, orbit, data, observation, investigation, model, cross-section, composition, elevation, compare, analyze, interpretation, inference, evidence, claim, explanation, and reasoning. Students gain the academic language needed to examine images and measurements and make evidence-based claims about Mars’s history.

Each vocabulary card includes:

• Large, easy-to-read science vocabulary term
• Clear student-friendly definition
• Meaningful science example sentence
• Three reusable vocabulary and discussion prompts
• Colorful science-themed design
• Coordinating cover/backing pages for double-sided printing

Students also investigate evidence that liquid water may once have flowed on Mars through terms such as channel, flow, conglomerate, sediment, sedimentary rock, erosion, deposition, and biosignature. These concepts help students connect the shapes and materials observed on Mars to geologic processes that can also be studied on Earth.

The resource also supports understanding of volcanic activity and planetary surface formation through vocabulary such as basalt, dormant, igneous rock, lava, magma, molten, geologic process, and landform. Students can use these terms to explain how lava and other processes may have shaped parts of Mars.

Students also encounter important space and planetary science terms such as Mars, planet, atmosphere, exosphere, orbit, mass, planetary geologist, habitable, organism, and biosignature, helping them connect geologic evidence to larger questions about Mars’s past environment and whether it may once have supported life.

Perfect for: Grade 6 science • Geology on Mars • Planetary geology • Rocks and minerals • Erosion and deposition • Volcanism • Evidence of past water • Mars exploration • Remote sensing • Science centers • Vocabulary stations • Small groups • Partner practice • Intervention • Review

Use these cards for whole-class review, science centers, vocabulary games, partner questioning, word walls, morning work, early finishers, small-group instruction, intervention, or test preparation. They can also be placed on a ring to create a portable science vocabulary review deck.

Prep is simple: print, cut, laminate if desired, and begin using immediately.

This colorful, student-friendly resource makes Geology on Mars vocabulary visual, interactive, and easy to reinforce throughout the unit.