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Summer Workshops for Teachers in Astrobiology
Every summer, NAI teams and others host hands-on, in-the-field, in-the-lab workshops for educators. The workshops feature cutting edge astrobiology research delivered by astrobiology scientists and education professionals, as well as inquiry- and standards-based activities ready for your classroom. Below is the list of offerings for Summer 2011.
ASTROBIOLOGY SUMMER SCIENCE EXPERIENCE for TEACHERS (ASSET)
Dates: 22-29 July 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Applications due: ... -
Titan Poster
Features on Titan such as volcanoes, sand dunes, lakes, and a nitrogen-rich atmosphere are analogous to those on Earth. The NASA/ESA Cassini mission discovered that Titan’s lakes are filled with liquid hydrocarbons, making this moon of Saturn the only body in the Solar System beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface.
You can now display images of this intriguing world in your classroom, office, or home! In addition to the beautiful image on...
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Launchpad: Astrobiology
Are we alone in the universe? Where do we come from? Join NASA eClips in the search for answers to these and many more questions about life in our solar system. Learn how astrobiologists use what we know about Earth to investigate Titan, Europa and other far-off worlds.
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Create Your Own Astrobiology Exhibit!
From Earth to the Solar System (FETTSS) is a collection of high resolution images that showcase the beauty and excitement of planetary exploration—our journey to understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System, and our search for life elsewhere.
FETTSS is freely available to organizations worldwide. You can download the high-resolution images for free, and print and display however many you choose, wherever you choose, and in any format you choose!
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Astrobiology Graphic Novel - Issue #2!
Cover art of the new astrobiology graphic novel. Image Credit: Aaron GronstalThe second issue of the Astrobiology Graphic Novel is now available! Download the pdf or the mobile app! Issue #2 maintains the gorgeous look and feel of the first one, but this time the novel chronicles the history of our exploration of Mars.
Indeed, that exploration has been wrought with success and failure, and has witnessed a dramatic evolution in knowledge. The novel begins with speculations about the famous “irrigation canals” on...
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Extreme Planet Makeover
Screenshot from Extreme Planet Makeover website.This new multimedia, web-based interactive game from NAI’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory team and JPL’s Planet Quest gives you the opportunity to create your own planet by varying parameters such as star type, distance from star, planet size, and planet age. Descriptions of how each parameter might affect habitability on the planet are given, and a picture of the planet you create can be downloaded. A recent review of the game from...
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Science of the Springs
Science of the Springs: Astrobiology in Yellowstone National Park provides an overview of the connection between astrobiology research and Yellowstone National Park. The booklet can be used by educators of all kinds, YNP visitors as they tour sites within the Park, or armchair travelers who desire to learn more about why astrobiologists believe the extreme life found in Yellowstone’s geothermal features may unlock clues to the origin of life on this planet and the existence of...
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Astrobiology Graphic Novel
The first issue of the Astrobiology Graphic Novel is now available! Download the pdf or the mobile app! Through fantastic original artwork and a compelling storyline, the novel chronicles the origin and evolution of astrobiology itself – tracing its roots from early cave paintings, through speculations of ancient Greek philosophers on the existence of other worlds, to contributions from more modern scientists such as Huygens, Galileo, Oparin, Haldane, Miller, Urey, Franklin, Watson, Crick, and...
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Podcasts about the Rise of Complex Life on Earth
In the first podcast produced through the NAI MIT team, journey back in time to learn about Ediacaran Fauna, a diverse group of organisms that lived in the world’s oceans about 580 million years ago. We’ll meet Dickinsonia rex, a sort of living bathmat without eyes or a mouth, and other strange denizens of the primordial slimebed. In the second podcast, we hear the story of how some fascinating fossils helped turn a devastated community around...
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Planet Quest: A Historic Timeline of the Search for Other Worlds
NASA’s Planet Quest website presents a Historic Timeline of the search for other worlds. The Timeline is a continuously updated Flash interactive that records 2,000 years of milestones in the search for exoplanets, done in a rich visual style. It serves as a primary source for members of the general public looking for information on the history of exoplanets, as well as for teachers in classrooms, educators in museums and science centers, and even...
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Webquest: The First Animals?
A slab of Ediacaran aged rock - what are those strange marks on its surface?The NAI Advent of Complex Life Team at MIT has produced self-contained education activities that can be used to help teachers address specific parts of the National Science Education Standards. These educational activities are known as ‘webquests,’ since most of the research is obtained using the Internet. The activities are supplemented by resources created by the team. The first webquest covers fossil evidence of the earliest known animal life on Earth, and asks...
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Life on Other Worlds NASA eClip
Geared toward the K-5 set, this NASA-produced video introduces the search for life on other planets, especially through the idea of life in ice as suggested by findings from NASA’s Phoenix mission.
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Life in the Universe Curriculum
Part of the cover image for the classroom materials called Life in the Universe.The Life in the Universe curriculum is a unique set of resources, for elementary and middle school teachers, designed to bring the excitement of searching for life beyond Earth into the classroom. The SETI Institute, with funding from NSF and NASA, developed these award winning classroom materials with a team of educators, curriculum developers, and scientists. The Life in the Universe curriculum explores many facets of how scientists are trying to answer the questions:...
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ICE in the Solar System
The cover image of the classroom lesson booklet, Exploring Ice in the Solar System, developed by the NAI Carnegie Institution of Washington Team and the NASA MESSENGER mission. Exploring Ice in the Solar System is a series of lessons for K-5 classrooms developed by the NAI Carnegie Institution of Washington Team and the NASA MESSENGER mission. Twelve lessons span topics from ice in everyday life, to exploring ice in the polar regions of Earth, to icy places on Mars and Europa, to life in ice. Each standards-aligned lesson consists of substantive background information, inquiry-based activities, teaching tips, resources, a photo...
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Podcast Gives Introduction to Astrobiology
Tune into the latest from Omega Tau, a wide-reaching podcast series from Stuttgart, Germany, for an interview with NAI’s Director Carl Pilcher. He gives a great introduction to the NAI, astrobiology, and the search for life elsewhere in the universe.
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NOVA ScienceNOW - Hunt for Alien Earths
A web shot for the webpage called NOVA science now.NOVA’s ScienceNOW series, hosted by Neil de Grasse Tyson, has just released a new episode called Hunt for Alien Earths which is devoted to the work of astronomers who search for planets orbiting other stars that might host life. Astrobiologists Lisa Kaltenegger, David Charbonneau, and Geoff Marcy are featured in this beautifully produced, twelve minute video.
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Timetree of Life
Scientists and non-scientists now have easy access to information about when living species and their ancestors originated, information that previously was difficult to find or inaccessible. Free access to the information is part of the new Timetree of Life initiative developed by NAI’s Blair Hedges, professor of biology with the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, and Sudhir Kumar, a professor of life sciences at Arizona State University.
The Timetree of Life project debuted with the simultaneous release...
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Invisible Yellowstone
The CD art for Montana State University's film called Invisible Yellowstone.Research conducted in Yellowstone National Park by astrobiologists from NAI’s Montana State Team is highlighted in the 30-minute film Invisible Yellowstone, produced by MSU’s Thermal Biology Institute and MSU’s Science and Natural History filmmaking program. The film is available on DVD by contacting Daniella Scalice at daniella.m.scalice@nasa.gov
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Virtual Field Trip to Western Australia
Visit the Mars analogue sites in Western Australia without leaving home!
Within the virtual field trip application, users are taken from a global view directly down to a surface view of a site. They are then seamlessly placed into a 360 degree spherical virtual reality surface panorama of that location. Next users navigate around the site selecting various objects and scientists to learn more about how and why this site was chosen,...
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Life on Earth....and Elsewhere?
This booklet, originally produced by NAI in 2000 and updated in 2007, contains five inquiry- and standards-based classroom activities for grades 5-8 and three math extensions spanning topics from Defining Life, to Determining the Chances of Extraterrestrial Life.
One of the activities, What Makes a World Habitable? utilizes Habitability Cards to investigate the possibility of life elsewhere in the Solar System.
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micro*scope
The study of microbial communities is essential if we are to understand and manage the world around us, and such studies prepare us for the exploration for life on other planets. micro*scope has images of microbes, classification schemes, descriptions of organisms, talks, and other educational resources to improve awareness of the biodiversity of our microbial partners.
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Astrobiology Education Poster
With gorgeous graphics, supporting background reading, and three inquiry- and standards-based, field tested activities, this poster is a great addition to any middle or high school classroom. It explores the connection between extreme environments on Earth, and potentially habitable environments elsewhere in the Solar System.
Astrobiology Education Poster small (PDF) large (PDF)
Science Background Text (PDF)
Activity 1 Life: What is it? Where is it? (PDF)
Activity...
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Yellowstone National Park Guide to Life in Extreme Heat
Chapter 4 of the Yellowstone Resources and Issues Guide, called Life in Extreme Heat, describes thermophiles, their habitats in the Park, and their relationship to both the history of life on Earth, and the search for life elsewhere. The Guide is used to train Park naturalists and rangers, and it can also serve as a valuable resource when teaching about extremophiles and astrobiology in the classroom. Chapter 4 can be downloaded from
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Voyages Through Time
Voyages Through Time (VTT) is an integrated science curriculum for ninth or tenth grade based on the theme of evolution and delivered on CD-ROM. It’s six modules span the breadth of astrobiology research, from cosmic evolution through the evolution of life, and beyond. In VTT, evolution is defined as cumulative change over time that occurs in all realms of the natural world. The evolutionary scope of VTT is billions...
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Looking for Life TV Documentary
NAI scientists and their international partners are featured in a new documentary called Looking for Life which has aired both on PBS and NASA-TV. The program highlights cutting edge field work in the arid Western Australian desert, an acidic river in Spain, high altitude lakes in the Bolivian Andes, and the permafrost within an old gold mine in the Canadian Arctic where astrobiologists are characterizing the unique habitats and survival...
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Astrobiology, An Integrated Approach
TERC has developed a middle and high school curriculum that stimulates student learning and participation with intriguing questions and illuminating activities. Astrobiology, by its very nature, kindles interest and curiosity in students and offers a genuinely exciting entrée to high school science. The yearlong curriculum is an inquiry-based, interdisciplinary program of study. Through a series of hands-on activities, students explore diverse concepts in chemistry, physics, biology, and Earth and space science. These...
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Take a Ride Through a Microbial Mat!
What would it be like to actually be inside a microbial mat? Take a ride on the Stromatolite Explorer as it explores the layers and interactions within a mat. The animated short (7 minute) video, Stromatolite Explorer, uses computer animation and video microscopy to take you on an imaginary tour inside a microbial mat.
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Microbes@NASA
Microbes@NASA is a website loaded with fantastic teaching tools for educators about microbial mats and why NASA is interested in them. Explore the site for a photo gallery, interactive web features in which students can conduct remote experiments on a real microbial mat in a NASA laboratory, numerous classroom activities, and a 7 minute animated film taking you for a ride through a microbial mat (teacher guide included).
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Astrobiology Book for Young Readers
Lerner Publishing Group has published a new Cool Science title for 4-8th grade readers called Astrobiology. From early imaginings about life on the Moon to modern observations of Mars, Europa, and Titan, this book gives an easy to follow, historical context for the search for life elsewhere.
The book’s author, Dr. Fred Bortz, engages students directly through school visits and other events.
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Exploring Deep Subsurface Life
Exploring Deep Subsurface Life Workbook and DVD teaching materials focus on research sites at Harmony Gold Mine in South Africa, and Lupin Gold Mine and High Lake Mine in Nunavut Territory, Canada. The workbook’s imagery invites the audience into the mine sites, and the lessons correspond to the astrobiology research carried out in the deep subsurface. The video and animation materials support and compliment the lessons in the workbook and introduce the...
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Explore Saturn's Moon Titan
New imagery and data from NASA’s Cassini-Huygens mission have “lifted the veil” enshrouding Saturn’s moon Titan, revealing what lies beneath its dense atmosphere. Explore this visually stunning, interactive, multimedia web feature for an overview of the mission, a comparison of Earth and Titan, a 3D globe of Titan, and the latest images from Cassini.
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Microbial Life Educational Resources
Microbial Life is a freely accessible digital library dedicated to the diversity, ecology, and evolution of the microbial world. Engage students with hands-on activities and other curriculum-based resources that cover topics such as astrobiology, bioinformatics, extremophiles, and the microbes of marine environments.
The site contains a variety of educational and supporting materials for students and teachers of microbiology. You will find information about microorganisms, extremophiles and extreme habitats, as well as links...
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Explore Saturn's Moon Enceladus
This web interactive from NASA’s Cassini mission features dazzling new imagery of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. It details the discovery of the plumes of ice particles and water vapor erupting from the surface and extending hundreds of kilometers into space. These plumes have put Enceladus on the map as an object of astrobiological study.
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Astro-Venture
Astro-Venture is an educational, interactive, multimedia Web environment highlighting NASA careers and astrobiology research in the areas of Astronomy, Geology, Biology and Atmospheric Science. Students in grades five through eight are transported to the future where they role play NASA occupations and use scientific inquiry, as they search for and build a planet with the necessary characteristics for human habitation. Supporting activities include chats with real NASA scientists, online collaborations,...
