Space
Driving Question: How might space exploration increase complexity?
Will we colonize other planets? Is there alien life somewhere in the Universe? Although these questions might be answered in the near future, we could make some predictions now about where we’re headed.
Learning Objectives:
- Evaluate the likelihood of humans colonizing other planets.
- Explain how space exploration might impact our future.
Vocab Terms:
- alien
- colonize
- exploration
- magnetic field
- radiation
- terraforming
Space has been a theater of the imagination since before we even understood what it was. Let’s do some imagining of our own!
Learning about Mars is always at the top of the list of students’ favorite Big History topics. Teachers in this conversation share how they extended student learning by including clips and excerpts from The Martian.
Will we meet extraterrestrial lifeforms in your lifetime? In the lifetime of our species? No one knows, but this video lays out some of the practical considerations of a potential first contact.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- How long would it take for an astronaut from Earth to reach Mars?
- How could we make Mars more hospitable for humans?
- How far away is the nearest star outside our Solar System?
- What is the Drake Equation?
- What is the Fermi Paradox?
After you watch
Respond to this question: What type of technological innovation do you think will make travel beyond our Solar System possible?
Want to know more about life on Mars? Astrobiologist David Flannery discusses his work with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Episode 5 of the Unknowns with David Christian podcast. Check out 10:28 to 18:28 of the full episode.
Could we someday inhabit Mars? Is it even a good idea? Let’s see if Martian life sounds like something you’d personally enjoy.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- When did Mars One think it would be possible to establish a human colony on Mars?
- How does gravity on Mars compare to gravity on Earth?
- Why does the current travel time to Mars concern NASA scientists?
- What are some of the challenges people might face if they lived on Mars?
- How do the moons orbiting Mars behave differently from our Moon?
After you watch
Respond to this question: Given that a Mars year is different from an Earth year, how old would you be on Mars?
Don’t forget that the closing activity for this lesson will come in handy when students decide what the next threshold might be in the last lesson of this unit.
Now that you’ve got a little more space knowledge under your belt, we want to hear what you think about our odds of voyaging into the great beyond!
