Session 1

Session 1

What is an exoplanet?

An exoplanet is any planet beyond our solar system. Most orbit other stars, but free-floating exoplanets, called rogue planets, orbit the galactic centre and are untethered to any star.* https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/what-is-an-exoplanet/overview/


Summary overview

We are going to explore the idea of an exoplanet. We are going to imagine landing on this planet, exploring and feeding back to our base. As we think about this planet, we are going to consider it from lots of different angles, and think about what the consequences of what we find are.


We are then going to put together a presentation that can then be uploaded to MIT as part of their challenge. This will be a team effort but coordinated by someone with ICT skills. A presentation DOES NOT limit itself to Google slides, but it does have to be one digital artefact that represents the teams' efforts.

Step 1 (2 mins)- Find out what an Exoplanet is - begin by watching this video as a class https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXYp9Fse44&t=119s
Step 2 (5 mins)- Then investigate more into the NASA Exoplanets site and MIT resources. As you go on open a google doc and write down any questions you have. We will record them and send them to the experts at MIT for answering.

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/discovery/exoplanet-catalog/

Step 3 - Get into groups (5 mins). - This is not going to be a solo project. You are going to work in groups. So please get into groups of 4(ish) now. 3 is okay, 5 is pushing it, no more or less.


One of the advantages of working in a team is that you do not have to be an expert in everything. Everyone brings their own skills and specialities to the project that is being worked on.

Step 4 Touchdown! (10 mins)

Your team are part of a space exploration team from Earth.

To quote the opening lines from the original Star Trek

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

You are approaching a new world, one never visited by mankind before. To get a ‘whole’ view for humanity, each of you have different skills, and you will record a rounded, holistic view.

There is a new planet is coming into view. You have a fixed amount of time in order to conduct your research. Roles could include, (but are not limited to).

The only essential role is the project manager, everything else can be directed by the interests of your group. Look at the job roles page first and then look through each of the individual pages. Investigate each page and decide what role each of you is going to play.

Artist, Engineer, Geographer, Historian, Project Manager, Scientist (Biologist), Scientist (Chemist), Scientist (Physicist), Writer, Other.

Once you have decided then the project manager needs to open up the "captains log" and write everyone's role down at the top. This is the start of your project.

Step 5 - Planning your planet - (30 mins)

You need to agree on what your planet looks like. Grab your A3 piece of paper or open your mind map software. In the middle write “new world”. Then add the following.

On approach - Colours, looks of the planet. What can we scientifically assume from the colours and looks of the planet? How bumpy the ride is - What does that tell you about the atmosphere?

Where did you touch down? Liquid? Gas? What is the planet made up of? What does the outside look like from the window? How many suns/moons can you see? What colours can you see? Mountains? Plains?

On the first exploration - Can you breathe? Can you walk? What's the pressure on your skeleton? What's the atmosphere? Have you met any life forms - Are they intelligent? Can you communicate? What about Flora or smaller animals, Can you see any structures not made by nature?

Anything else to consider? At this stage, you are planning what your planet looks like. It can be as human-friendly or unfriendly as you want to make it and remember each decision you make has an impact on what your team is going to encounter.

Some additional points you need to discuss as a team before you separate out to do your individual tasks..........

Make sure that your ICT person has details on what you have all agreed your planet is going to look like. Now you have all agreed on what your planet is going to look like, you can consider what you are going to do for your own projects.

Step 6 - The specialist's project - (remainder of the session (40 minutes-ish))

Hopefully, by now you and your team know what your planet is made up of. So now when you begin to put together all of your individual projects you should all be talking about the same world.

It is now time for you to work on your individual project. It doesn't have to be individual though, you could create something for the writer section and then create something for the artist section. It's up to you.

Remember your team is going to be submitting one whole presentation, but I have not said that the presentation needs to be on slides, it could be an MP4 created in iMovie, for example. As long as it allows for the full range of your investigations to be shown, then I don't mind what you submit. It just needs to be one file that can be bought together at the end of the session. Your Project Manager needs to identify the assumptions in your presentation and present them whilst the rest of you start to tackle your individual components.

Look again at the job descriptions. How are you going to showcase your findings?