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The hunt for life in other parts of the universe is on—but how are scientists going about it, and what does it mean to discover life, anyway? This Digital Teaching Box contains classroom-tested, NGSS-aligned resources for teaching about life and the search for life away from Earth.
Grade Level & Course
High school astronomy
Author & Affiliation
Ellen Koivisto
Ruth Asawa School of the Arts
Time Estimate
6–14 weeks
Concepts Covered
Characteristics and origins of life
The chemical signatures of life on earth
Tools of astronomy
Writing for scientific publication
Building and observing Winogradsky columns are a great way to give students a close-up look at how life functions. Here’s everything you’ll need to make the columns and make them work for your classroom.
Resource Attribution
SERC and NASA
Resource Type
Instructions (text and video)
Teaching Notes
Introduce students to the Drake Equation and give them a chance to fill in the blanks. The Drake Equation is an attempt to quantify the likelihood of life in the universe.
Resource Attribution
Ellen Koivisto
Resource Type
Reading and Worksheet
Teaching Notes
Introduce students to SETI, the radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and prompt them to think about the vocabulary of astronomy and how it reflects political, physical, and cultural trends.
Resource Attribution
Ellen Koivisto
Resource Type
Reading and Worksheet
Teaching Notes
The concept of “orders of magnitude” is very important in astronomy. This might be a good place to insert an activity or lesson on that concept.
Explore the ways in which energy and resources (in the form of equipment, money, time, locations, and lots of very intelligent people) can change location and become concentrated due to environmental changes (in the form of WWII for this activity.)
Resource Attribution
Wikipedia, Los Alamos National Laboratory History Center, Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project, various newspaper obituaries, Brock University Map Library, Stewart Brand
Resource Type
Reading and activity
Teaching Notes
Get students thinking about the problems with looking for intelligent life from earth with this short article.
Resource Attribution
David S. Spiegel
Resource Type
Article
Teaching Notes
Give students a set of different definitions of life to sort, organize, and analyze with the guidance of a worksheet and a “guided walking tour” of the results.
Resource Attribution
Ellen Koivisto; see the Definitions of Life key in the linked asset for sources of quotes
Resource Type
Activity worksheet, activity cards, activity key
Teaching Notes
Investigate the boundary between the living and the non-living, including seven different theories for how life began.
Resource Attribution
Charles Q. Choi
Resource Type
Internet Article
Teaching Notes
Get a long view on the search for life on earth from space and review some chemical reactions that may be of interest.
Resource Attribution
Phil Plait, Ellen Koivisto
Resource Type
Short article, worksheet, list
Teaching Notes
What tools do we have to hunt for life that's in our solar system, but not on our planet?
Resource Attribution
Ellen Koivisto, National Academy of Sciences, Hayhurst at Lancaster High School
Resource Type
Lab activity and worksheet
Teaching Notes
Assign students to locations in the solar system to start their search for life—then let them look.
Resource Attribution
Ellen Koivisto, Desilu Productions, Terry Bisson
Resource Type
Worksheet/project guidelines, TV episode (~50 minutes), short story, worksheet
Teaching Notes
Bring students along on their search for life—teach them about remote sensing and how it can be a tool for their work in their particular location.
Resource Attribution
Byrd, Deborah, “How Close to Finding Alien Life?” Science Wire, June 25, 2015.
Cooper, Charles. “NASA scientist: evidence of alien life on meteorite.” CBS News, March 7, 2011.
DNEWS, “Earth Fossil Find May Lead to Martian Discoveries.” Seeker, February 11, 2013.
Emspak, Jesse. “What Earth’s oldest fossils mean for finding life on Mars.” Live Science, 2016.
Hegdea, Siddharth et al. “Surface biosignatures of exo-Earths: remote detection of extraterrestrial life.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (13), 3886-3891. 2015.
NASA, “NASA spots signs of life...on earth.” earthobservatory.nasa.gov, May 5, 2010.
Seielstad, George and Foster, Jim. Earth Science Picture of the Day, September 12, 2016.
Yirka, Bob, “Researchers find evidence of cavity-dwelling microbial life from 3 billion years ago.” Phys.org, December 28, 2015.
Resource Type
Lab activity, articles, explained images
Teaching Notes
Start the hard work of collecting data to try to find life at students' locations.
Resource Attribution
Ellen Koivisto
Resource Type
Worksheet
Teaching Notes
Prepare students to learn how to write up their studies for possible publication.
Resource Attribution
Compiled by Ellen Koivisto; inspired by English Communication for Scientists
Resource Type
List, sample, worksheet, samples, worksheets
Teaching Notes
Science and Engineering Practices
All eight are required.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth’s Place in the Universe
Earth’s Systems
ESS2.C The abundance of liquid water on Earth’s surface and its unique combination of physical and chemical properties are central to the planet’s dynamics. These properties include water’s exceptional capacity to absorb, store, and release large amounts of energy, transmit sunlight, expand upon freezing, dissolve and transport materials, and lower the viscosities and melting points of rocks. (HS-ESS2-5)
ESS2.E Biogeography The many dynamic and delicate feedbacks between the biosphere and other Earth systems cause a continual co-evolution of Earth’s surface and the life that exists on it. (HS-ESS2-7)
Earth and Human Activity
ESS3.B Natural hazards and other geologic events have shaped the course of human history; [they] have significantly altered the sizes of human populations and have driven human migrations. (HS-ESS3-1)
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interaction
Energy
PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes
Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation
Crosscutting Concepts
All 7 are required.
Cells aren’t just the basis of life; they’re the basis of biology learning.
Humans haven’t yet figured out how to turn energy from the sun into chemical energy, or how to use that energy to support life—but producers have.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Attribution: Exploratorium Teacher Institute