Monday 9/10/12

EQ: How do we determine if there is life on other planets?

VOCAB: none

HOMEWORK: finish the Characteristics of Life worksheet

CLASS RECAP: Today students started class by reflecting on whether or not there may be life on planets other than earth.  Students wrote in their daily science journal whether there could ever be life on Mars.  After a class discussion about what is needed for a biosphere we watched the following clip (4:12) about the Mars Curiosity rover.


Students discussed three things about the video:

1) What date did the shuttle launch?
2) How long was the shuttle in space before it landed (therefore when did curiosity land on Mars?)
3) What is Curiosity looking for?  What type of samples is it collecting?

We then discussed as a class that the type of erosion found on Mars looks like it resulted from water.  Students discussed what we would need to create on Mars in order to sustain life.  We would need to essentially create an entire biosphere!  Easier said than done.  We can relate this shuttle launch to the seven characteristics of life.  We need an environment that will help sustain living things and enable them to:
-reproduce
-be made of cells
-maintain homeostasis
-adapt to their environment and evolve
-respond to stimuli
-use energy
-grow and develope

At the end of class, I introduced a project that students will be working on and presenting on this Friday.  The project is called "Billion Dollar Baby".  Students will be working in their lab groups to design an experiment which they will pitch to representatives at Proctor and Gamble (aka Miss Styer) and their classmates.  Each group will have only 4 minutes on Friday to design an experiment and convince the representative that they should receive the 1,000,000,000 dollars in funding.  The winning group will be announced on the following Monday.  Students have the freedom to use whichever media they would like to use to present their experiment... but they only have 4 minutes!  Email Miss Styer throughout the week if you have questions.  Good luck!