Workshop on Astrobiology for Teachers

During the summer of 2006, the IU School of Education, in partnership with the IU Departments of Astronomy and Geological Sciences and the University of Tennessee, presented a 3-day workshop for high school science teachers on astrobiology, funded through grants from NASA's Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative, the Indiana Space Grant Consortium, and the Spitzer Science Center.

The workshop, held in late June at the IU School of Education, was attended by twenty teachers from middle and high schools in Indiana and Tennessee. The workshop included science content on habitable environments in the Solar System, the biology of life, and the search for planets around other stars, as well as inquiry-based, classroom activities. The goals of the workshop were to provide teachers with a better understanding of astrobiology, to offer new opportunities for science in Midwestern middle and high schools, and to encourage the teaching of astrobiology integrated into other science disciplines (e.g. biology, physics, chemistry, Earth science).

The workshop was presented by

• Glenn Simonelli
• Richard H. Durisen
• Lisa Pratt
• Catherine Pilachowski
• Susan M. Pfiffner
• Kimberly L. Davis
• Scott Michael (IU Astronomy)

Schedule of Activities and Lectures

Tuesday

• Outline
• Ice Breaker
• Overview and Planet Preference Survey
• Global Average Temperatures of  Planetary Surfaces and the “Habitable Zone (PowerPoint, 547 KB, Durisen)
• Activity 1 – Determining Our Sun’s Habitable Zone
• Activity 2 – Is Your Planet in a Habitable Zone?
• At the Edges of the Habitable Zone
• Activity 3 – Albedo
• Life Outside the Habitable Zone?  (PowerPoint, 6 MB, Durisen)

Wednesday

• Winogradsky Columns – Recipe and notes
• The Molecule of Life: DNA  (PowerPoint, 6 MB, Pfiffner)
• Phylogenetic Tree of Life – (PowerPoint, 22 MB, Pfiffner)

Thursday

• Suns of Other Worlds (PowerPoint, 5 MB, Pilachowski)
• Exoplanets – (PowePoint, 9 MB, Durisen)
• Exoplanet Article – “A decade of Radial-Velocity Discoveries in the Exoplanet Domain” S. Udry et. al.
• Drake Equation – Activity and notes
• The Search for Planets and Life – Resources and notes

Extras

• Lesson 4 – Atmosphere
• Lesson 5 – Final Planet Details
• Lesson 6 – Is it Living?
• Lesson 7 – Big Life or Tiny?
• Lesson 8 – The History of Life on Earth
• Extrasolar Life Article – “From Protoplanets to Protolife: The Emergence and Maintenance of Life” E. Gaidos & F. Selsis

Useful Links

• Drake Formula Solver
• T he Planet Temperature Calculator
• Life in the Universe: A Workbook for the Drake Solver and The Planet Temperature Solver [Word] [PDF]
• Life in Space Astronomy/Astrobiology Units for 5th-8th Grade
• Jewels of the Night

The support of the Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative, the Indiana Space Grant Consortium, and the Spitzer Science Center for this summer workshop is gratefully acknowledged.