astrobiology
Mud, bacteria, eggs, oh my! 07/02/2011
We had a really fun week! Campers began with discussing what constitutes reliable science news and identifying life. One nature walk, 2 1/2 gallons of vinegar and a lot of baking soda later, they have planned a mission, built model craft from recycled materials, shot off landers and rockets with egg passengers, and grown some extremely smelly bacteria! (Sorry, there will be no pictures - the smell at 3 days was enough for us to discard our experiment!) All in all, a fun week. I've been giving thought to hosting a camp for educators on using technology tools in the classroom. What do you think? Add Comment How to go through a dozen eggs in an hour 06/30/2011
Once you have an idea of where you are going, it becomes pretty important to chart a course for getting there. So, today we began working on the vehicles necessary to get us to our travel destinations. Jupiter's moons seemed to be a popular location. Campers had to think about the terrain and geological features they might encounter on such a world. They then had to build landers and rovers to handle what they might encounter. As in the real world, testing is of the utmost importance. We obviously were not in a position to launch campers into space, then see what happened when their landers, well, landed. So we used surrogate astronauts and tested landing from varying heights around campus. The surrogates? Eggs! Many eggs, wrapped in baggies! We experienced varying degrees of success in this endeavor, but campers reviewed their designs, thought about what worked and what didn't and amended designs accordingly. In the end, we had pretty consistent success! We then went to the computer lab to research more information. Campers put together mission descriptions, including descriptions of vehicles designed, descriptions of their destinations, and descriptions of the types of alien life they thought they might encounter. All of this information will be used as part of the display for show and tell. Mud is awesome! 06/30/2011
Today, we began our morning with mud. Lots and lots of stinky, slimy mud. The reason? Mud harbors some of the hardiest creatures we know - bacteria! The campers collected mud, and created a "Bacterial Garden." Much like putting together a terrarium or aquarium our garden (bacteriaium?) is meant to allow students to study the progression of the organisms over time. This activity was found on the Kamchatka site listed on the Links page. We added nutrients in the form of a raw egg and some newspaper to the bottom of a soda bottle, and mixed it up with mud and water. This will feed our decomposer bacteria. They will, in turn, use up the oxygen at the bottom of the container, releasing CO2. This will feed other bacteria higher in the column of mud, as well as encourage the growth of anaerobic bacteria near the bottom. Finally, exposure to sunlight (the activity called for constant exposure to a 40 watt light bulb, campers are welcome to try that at home, for the time being we are sitting the bottles near a window) will aid in the growth of photosynthetic bacteria near the surface of the mud. I don't know for certain when we might see results - maybe there will be a little change by the end of the week. Since one of these will be living at my house, though, I will try to post pictures as it progresses! We then spent the balance of the day beginning our preparations for our extraterrestrial mission. After learning about types of extremophiles (acid-loving, heat-loving, cold-loving, radiation-loving, salt-loving), we analyzed the environments on several planets and moons within our solar system and tried to determine the likelihood of life on any of them. The campers began to realize how difficult it is to completely rule out the existence of any life, as extremophiles on this planet indicate that life can exist almost anywhere. We narrowed our selections down to a small handful of planets in the outer solar system, and will begin planning our voyages tomorrow! Learning about Life 06/28/2011
Today, we went on a nature walk. The school grounds are fairly expansive, and there are still many native woods on the premises. Bear sightings are not unusual, and they can make the day interesting. The students were tasked with finding at least 5 items that were alive, never alive, and once alive. We discussed the characteristics of each item to determine how we decide which category to use. (Seeds are a little ambiguous still - I'm going with alive, though). On our walk, we found fungi, toads, lichen and more. Lots of cool things living around the school! We then discussed what form life might take on another planet - what adaptations creatures might need in order to survive the extreme conditions found on other worlds, and what adaptations they take on this one. In that vein, the arts and crafts activity was to make a field guide of the samples taken on the nature walk. We discussed that the best way to document a living creature was to take a picture, rather than the creature. (Imagine the intergalactic wars that might start!) Field guides currently consist largely of rocks, sticks, lichen (which IS living, but is not likely to take up arms or protest too much), leaves and flowers that had fallen to the ground, etc. We also played the adaptation game. This involved having students choose from a variety of environments - including frozen planets, gas planets, deserts, oceans and rainforests. They then had to choose a familiar animal - duck, frog, chicken, etc. The idea was that they will end up with an animal that does not currently live in said environment, and will need to figure out how the animal will adapt to survive its new surroundings. We ended up with unbelievably fluffy ducks, flatulent frogs, killer desert pigs and spacesuit wearing chickens. Big fun! |
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