1.17 Finding a new house for humans in the outer space Prof. Mihaela Garabet - SIVECO ROMÂNIA Short Description: The students will make research into The Solar System for trying to find an appropriate planet for building a new house for humans by using the World Wide Telescope and some links on internet: http://www.pil-network.com/Resources/Tools/Details/cadbf11b network.com/Resources/Tools/Details/cadbf11b-d260-4322 4322-8f8527f369ee76f9 http://space-facts.com/mars/ facts.com/mars/ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/log/ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/ rs.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/ Aims: The main goal of this learning activity is that students will have to imagine a way for finding an appropriate place in the Solar System for colonization of outer space. Aims: 1. Imaging a project for colonization of outer space because planet Earth will not be able to support and feed us in the next hundred years. 2. Documenting and exploring the Solar System by using the World Wide Telescope 3. Evaluating the obtained scientific information 4. Presenting the main ideas ide of every team’s project. Fostered Skills: Problem solving Handling information Investigation Presentation Connection to the curriculum: Universe representations. Solar system model Implementation of the Demonstrator: The didactical approach is a blend of project-based learning and scientific inquiry in order to give students the enjoyment of finding out for themselves and initiates appreciation of the nature of scientific activity and of the power and the limitations of science.. The educational activity will benefit of e-learning tools like WWT, digital educational content, web resources. Because the students will have to solve a real problem of the humankind they will have a learning excursion in order to meet the astronomers. The final product of the teams of students will be the presentation of a slide show. 1st learning activity: Humans, we are having problems here! Mother Earth still has secrets! Its composition, its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate. On the other side, we are too many human beings, we need food, air and homes for living… In this activity the students will find out why Earth is still able to support life. They will study greenhouse effect and global warming with all the climate changes which are affecting the humans now. 2nd learning activity Why should we have to find new houses for humans in the outer space? Identify the reasons for this! The Earth is not immortal. Here, the students will have to reflect about increasing population, about the need to feed people, about the limited capacity of Gaia to offer more resources. It is also time to think of the existent nuclear potential. 3rd learning activity Which planet of the Solar System is the most similar to Earth, in order to send there a space bubble? After the study of the planets of the Solar System by using World Wide Telescope, the students will have a learning excursion to the Observatory for speaking with the astronomers. After that they will choose the most appropriate planet to be colonized. For example, Exploring Mars (adapted from http://www.pil-network.com/Resources/Tools/Details/cadbf11b-d260-4322-8f8527f369ee76f9 • What are the most interesting surface features on Mars? Save their images to a new tour named Mars tour WWT. • Where is the oldest part of Mars? [Hint: Look for a basin in the heavily cratered part of Mars.] • Where do you think the youngest part of Mars is? • Did you find similarities between Earth and Venus? http://www.windows2universe.org/mars/mars.html Exploring Venus • Compare the dimensions of Venus and Earth. Save their images to a new tour named • • Mars tour WWT. What do you think about Venus’ atmosphere? Did you find similarities between Earth and Venus? http://www.universetoday.com/15570/colonizing-venus-with-floating-cities/ http://www.windows2universe.org/venus/venus.html 4th learning activity Present your ideas regarding the way to gain a new house for humans! The students are ready to prepare a slide show by using a new tour in WWT and to present their ideas in front of the others. Finally, they will present the results of their self assessment. Domain: Big Idea of Science: Age group: Time needed: Integrated Science 5,6, 11, 12 15-18 Three weeks per all, 3 hours of Teaching and Learning in the classroom Languages available: Equipment needed Involved actors Used eTool and link: English At least 15 computers for teams of two students, internet access, etc. Science teachers, astronomers from the Bucharest Observatory World Wide Telescope http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ Download/ Quality Characteristics of the Demonstrator Characteristic I how Demonstrator follows an inquiry based approach The inquiry based approach consists of finding the real problems of living on this beautiful planet, Mother Earth or Gaia, in order to start searching another house for humans on another planet. Characteristic II how Demonstrator integrates eLearning element Students will use some simulations in order to discover what happens with Earth’s atmosphere, regarding the climate changes. They will also use World Wide Telescope for exploring the planets of the Solar System and for preparing the slide show. Characteristic III how Demonstrator follows a Big Idea of Science Which planet of the Solar System is the most similar to Earth, in order to send there a space bubble? At least for the beginning we will remain in the Solar System, but it is possible to go further one day. Students will have to make research regarding the composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate. Even the solar system is a very small part of one of millions of galaxies in the Universe. They will find out that the knowledge produced by science is used in some technologies to create products that will serve human ends. Characteristic IV how Demonstrator is connected to a real world problem Present your ideas regarding the way to gain a new house for humans abroad Earth! What planet would you choose from the Solar System? We, the humans, will have problems here regarding the increasing population and the need to feed them, first of all. After the need for food we will face the need to possess territories on Earth surface. And so on… the history could repeat again but on another scale. It will be necessary to find new houses for humans in the outer space. Experiences with the Demonstrator? Not yet.