AS91415 - Task Requirements

This assessment activity requires you to investigate whether life could exist on Europa or Enceladus. This site will provide you initially with information for topics such as 

• A brief description of the environments of plants and moons in the solar system that may have life on there 

• What life needs at its simplest 

• The extremophiles that inhabit similar zones on Earth and may inhabit these environments

• The possibility of life on these moons in more detail

You may work in small groups to research and discuss the topic, but the report must be your own work. 

You will have 2-3 weeks of lesson time, and your own time to complete this assessment.

Images, data, and diagrams are good to use to illustrate points, as long as they are referenced and have a heading. 

Rough notes and processed resources must be handed in with the final report or poster either as electronic files or as paper copies. This will form a portfolio of learning. 

The final assessment must be in your own words, as this shows that you have understood the work and have not just copied information from the sources. 

The tasks below should be used as milestones, check in with your teacher after each step.

Task 1: Choose either Europa or Enceladus. Select and process a wide range of reliable information (from class notes, the Internet, photographs, DVDs and video clips) on:

a. What life needs at its simplest 

b. The conditions on either Europa or Enceladus that may be suitable for life and why they are suitable for life 

c. The extremophiles that could exist on parts of Europa or Enceladus and why they would be able to live in the suitable environments 

Task 2: Select and process the information you need. Do this by: 

a. Finding out the meaning of difficult words or phrases 

b. Highlighting important information and deleting unwanted information

c. Commenting on key points. 

Task 3: Write the report, this part must be done on your own as a written report or poster. In your report or poster: 

a. Explain the environments on either Europa or Enceladus where life could exist 

b. Explain the requirements of simple life and the nature of the life forms that could exist on your chosen moon

c. Explain the key links between the astronomical and biological aspects, that is, why a chosen life form would be able to live in a particular environment. 

*Present the information that you have selected and processed so that Y13 ESS students would readily understand it.

*All sources of information used in your report must be recorded in a traceable format. This means that someone else could go straight to where you accessed the information from. All sources of information, images, diagrams (not generated by you), and data must be acknowledged in a reference list that includes full web addresses for Internet sources, and full referencing of information from class notes, books and journals. 

Checklist

1. Select either Europa or Enceladus. 

2. Find out as much as you can about possible environments suitable for life e.g. liquid ocean under the ice or on the ocean floor around hydrothermal vents. 

3. Determine which conditions from which environments life could adapt to. 

4. Find out the basic requirements that life needs to survive and reproduce, for example, liquid water, an energy source, and a carbon source. Give examples of these from your moon. 

5. Find examples of life that are found in extreme conditions, such as types of bacteria or Archaea extremophiles and why they could live in your chosen environments.