Back to Asteroids – Unit 3: Astrobiology
Asteroids – Unit 3 Lesson 3: Extreme Environments
In this lesson: In this lesson, students will use what is known about extreme forms of life on Earth to speculate about potential areas for extreme life on Mars. Then, they will use these understandings to speculate about the potential for past or present life on the target body.
Lesson level question: What can we learn from extreme environments on Earth to plan where and how to look for life on other planetary bodies?
Engage
Students will view several extreme environments on Earth and create a diagram of an organism that could survive that environment.
Explore
Students will use card sets to learn more about Earth’s extremophiles and environments on Mars). assigned systems.
Explain
Students will make a claim about the most likely location on Mars for evidence of life and extremophile type that they would expect to find there.
Elaborate
Students will apply what they have learned in this lesson about extremophiles and what they learned in previous lessons about the target body for this year’s challenge to make a claim about life on the target body.
Evaluate
Students will make formal claims about potential life on the target body.
Extend (optional)
Students will research various categories of extreme life found on Earth, and report out to their classmates.