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Warmer 
Students do the quiz in pairs and then check their 
answers to find out who the class ‘space experts’ are.
Key:
1. Apollo II
2. InSight
3. the far (or ‘dark’) side of the moon
4. 1. Mercury; 2. Venus; 3. Earth; 4. Mars; 5. Jupiter; 
6. Saturn; 7. Uranus; 8. Neptune. (Note: Pluto is not included 
because it is now considered to be a dwarf planet.)
Key words 
Divide the students into two groups, A and B. Give 
students in group A the ‘Yes!’ article, and students in 
group B the ‘No!’ article. Students in each group should 
Level
: Advanced
Time
: 90 minutes + 
Summary: 
In this lesson, two experts offer 
their opinions on whether the enormous sums 
of money government agencies spend on 
space exploration are good investments to 
safeguard the future of mankind or a waste of 
time and money. Students:
1. complete a space quiz;
2. read one of two articles about 
space exploration;
3. conduct an information exchange with a 
student who read the other article;
4. discuss whether they feel space 
exploration is worthwhile;
5. research some inventions prompted by 
space exploration.
Materials:
One copy of the worksheet
per student
Group size:
Two or more
Is space exploration a waste of money?

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© Springer Nature Limited (Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group) and Spotlight Verlag GmbH, 2019
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT / Is space exploration a waste of money?
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Information sharing 
Students first work with someone who read the same 
article as them, and together they should make a 
note of all the arguments the author makes as well 
as the monetary figures specified. Then they pair up 
with someone who read the other article, sharing the 
information from their articles by explaining to their