Race for the Red Planet was designed by Daphne Fauber to teach engineering design principles through the contextualization of popular culture, science fiction, and the current race for Mars. The goal of the lesson was for students to learn how people may be living on Mars in the future through a variety of interdisciplinary sources and various mediums. Specifically, students were meant to understand how different subject areas, such as biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering, intertwine in order to give innovators more holistic views of problems and how that informs the design of Mars habitats today. The lesson was designed to last four 50-minute class periods and follows the Modified Five E model for engineering design-based lessons. Students will develop skills associated with "Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" 7Y, "Optimize a design by addressing desired qualities within criteria and constraints" (2020). As per the Modified Five E model, the lesson has an Engage, Explore, Explain, Engineer, and Evaluate section. The lesson was designed to be adaptable to different classrooms. Due to the nature of the lesson, the Explore stations can be altered to better reflect other lessons and subject matter that have been taught in the classroom. This lesson provides a unique opportunity to collaborate between departments and make an inter-classroom project that engages all types of students. By connecting science fiction, popular culture, current events, and engineering grand challenges, Race for the Red Planet provides context to the engineering design process in a way that fosters creativity.