Kids' Science Challenge: Fun Educational Science Resources!



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Theme: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Title: “Making Contact”

Overview: Since the mid-1970’s, pioneers such as Francis Drake have been designing ways to contact and communicate with extraterrestrial life, and discover evidence of other life in our galaxy. The answer to the question of “Is there anyone out there?” has been pursued in various ways. The government has been involved, but now this task has fallen mostly on the private sector. Large scale schemes and machines exist, or will so shortly, to help us find the answers we are looking for.

Grade Level: 5-8

Subject Matter: Space Science

Duration: 2-3, 50-minute periods

National Standards Addressed:

Science as Inquiry

• Fundamental abilities in inquiry

Earth and Space Science

• Origin and evolution of the universe

Objectives:

By the end of the lesson the students will:

• Gain knowledge of the past, present, and future attempts at listening for, identifying, and communicating with extraterrestrial life.

Materials:

• Computers

• Internet access

• handouts

Procedure:

1. Hook:

a. Play “Contact” movie trailer:

b. Discuss some background to this movie: (film)

2. Looking and Listening in Space – Searching for intelligent life.

a. Introduce the lesson with prompts:

i. Which is bigger the Milky Way Galaxy or the universe?

ii. Can we try to detect ET’s without leaving Earth? If so, how?

iii. Do you think we can detect other civilizations outside our galaxy (the Milky Way)?

iv. Do you think there are any other planets like ours in the Milky Way Galaxy?

v. Sound cannot travel in space, sound needs matter to travel on and there is no matter in deep space. If sound doesn’t travel in space then how would we “hear” a message from another civilization?

vi. Play Pulse of the Planet program# 2120: “Listening to the Universe – Computers and Ears” and point out the following:

1. There is no way to “hear” sounds from space because sound needs a medium to travel on and space does not have matter.

2. We have radio receivers that capture signals and computers to translate it into something we can hear.

b. Dispense the handout entitled “Looking and Listening in Space – Searching for Intelligent Life.”

c. Explain the assignment

i. Describe how we “look” for ET’s – radio signals, optical devices, computers, space travel.

ii. This assignment gives an historical perspective as well as a look into current and future technologies.

iii. Students are to fill out all categories for each technology.

iv. Students will have two days in class to utilize the computers. After two days, the assignment will be homework.

v. Be sure to assign a due date.

Handouts:

Looking and Listening in Space – Searching for Intelligent Life

Introduction: “Looking” for ET’s does not always involve looking. Listening and even travelling is important as well.

Directions: Fill out the table below. The links below under the heading of Resources will guide you in your search. Provide two to three facts each for the Purpose, Description of Technology and Interesting Facts sections. Some items have been filled in for you

|Name |Purpose |Description of technology|Interesting Facts |Optical/ Audio/ |Year Est’d |Still Funct.? |

| | | | |Space | | |

|Hubble | | | | | | |

|Telescope | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|James Webb Space | | | | |2010 | |

|Telescope | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Atacama Large | | |Able to look into the | | | |

|Millimeter Array | | |“cold” regions of the | | | |

| | | |universe – never done | | | |

| | | |before. | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|The Horn |Able to pick up weak | | | | |NO |

| |levels of background | | | | | |

| |radiation. | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Allen | | | | | | |

|Telescope Array | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Deep Space Network | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Keck | | |Each telescope is 30 ft | | | |

|Observatory | | |wide | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Kepler Mission |To find other earth | | | | | |

| |sized planets | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Arecibo Message | | |First attempt at | | | |

| | | |contacting other | | | |

| | | |civilizations | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|The Big Ear | | | | | |NO |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|SETI@home | |Uses our computers to | | | | |

| | |search for ET’s | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Spirit and Opportunity | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

Resources:

• (Hubble)

• (James Webb)

• (ALMA)

• (Horn)

• (Allen)

(Deep Space Network)

• (Keck)

• (Kepler)

•

• (Big Ear)

• (Seti@home)

• (Spirit and Opportunity)

Additional Resources

Web sites

Hat Creek Radio Observatory – University of California at Berkeley



Radio Astronomy Laboratory - University of California at Berkeley



Deep Space Network – NASA



Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope



Planet Quest – NASA Jet Propulsion Lab



SETI Institute



The Arecibo Message – University of Utah



The Arecibo Message Decoded – Fourmilab (Switzerland)



The Drake Equation – NOVA Online



Runaway Universe – NOVA Online



The Horn Antenna – National Park Service



Allen Telescope Array – UC at Berkeley



Kidnapped By UFO’s? –



Just the Facts: Three SETI Myths – SETI Institute



An Anomalous SETI Signal – NASA



Big Ear Radio Observatory



Big Ear Radio Observatory – Ohio History Central



Audio

“The Musical Sounds of Space” – NPR



Listen to the Universe - Cornell University



More Sounds From Space – Radio JOVE



Interactive Graphics

ET The Extraterrestrial (trailer) – Universal Studios



The Privileged Planet (6:32) –



Articles

“How Rare Is the Earth?” –



“The Chance of Finding Aliens” – Sky and Telescope



“Top 10: Controversial Pieces of Evidence for Extraterrestrial Life” (9/04/06) –



“Mysterious Signals From Light Years Away” –



Animation / Interactive

The Drake Equation Interactive (tutorial – see left column) – NOVA Online



ET Gallery (see left column) – NOVA Online



Do Aliens Exist in the Milky Way? (see left column) – NOVA Online



The Pillars of Creation – (see left column) – NOVA Online



Other

Deep Space Poster and Activities (PDF) – NASA



Have Super Hearing with a Super Sound Cone (experiment / activity) – NASA Space Place



Alien Evidence (activity) –



Photos and Graphics

Name: Helix Nebula

URL:

Caption: The Helix Nebula, also referred to as ‘The Eye of God.”

Credit: NASA

Name: The Arecibo Message

URL:

Caption: The Arecibo message is a digital message sent to globular star cluster M13, and is a well-known symbol of human attempts to contact extraterrestrials

Credit: Arne Nordmann

Name: M16 The Eagle Nebula

URL:

Caption: Undersea corral? Enchanted castles? Space serpents? These eerie,

dark pillar-like structures are actually columns of cool interstellar

hydrogen gas and dust that are also incubators for new stars.

Credit: NASA

Name: Horn Antenna

URL:

Caption: In 1965 while using the Horn Antenna, Penzias and Wilson stumbled on the microwave background radiation that permeates the universe.

Credit: NASA

Name: Wow Signal Notation

URL:

Caption: The OSU SETI program gained fame on August 15, 1977 when Dr. Jerry R. Ehman, a project volunteer, witnessed a startlingly strong signal received by the telescope. He quickly circled the indication on a printout and scribbled the phrase “Wow!” in the margin. This signal, dubbed the Wow! signal, is considered by some to be the most likely candidate from an artificial, extraterrestrial source ever discovered, but it has not been detected again in several additional searches.

Credit: SETI

Allen Telescope Array Live Cam – SETI Institute



Special thanks to the following scientists for their help with this project:

Pulse of the Planet Programs: #2120 “Listening to the Universe: Computers and Ears”

Kent Cullers

Director of Research and Development

The Center for SETI Research

SETI Institute

Header Image

Name: Dark Matter

Credit: NASA

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