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Alpha Stage
Humankind's Quest
April 25, 2007



The New York Times is running an article entitled, "New Planet Could be
Earthlike Scientists Say."

The article reports, "It is the smallest of the 200 or so planets that are
known to exist outside of our solar system, the extrasolar or exo-planets.
It orbits its home star within the so-called habitable zone where surface
water, the staff of life, could exist if other conditions are right, said
Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory."

The article cautions that it is "far too soon to conclude that liquid water
was there without more observations."

Read the article!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

  • Ask your students if they think it would be fun to travel in outer
    space. Why/why not? If they were to travel in outer space what
    would they look for/look at? Why?
  • Consider asking your students to draw a picture of what
    they might see if they looked out of the window of a
    rocket ship.

  • If your students were to meet somebody from another planet
    what would they ask him/her/it? Why would they ask these
    questions? What three things would your students tell somebody
    from another planet about life on Earth, if asked? Why?
  • Students could develop skits in which an Earth person
    meets somebody from outer space for the first time.

  • If your students were to move to another planet, what would they
    want to bring with them from Earth? Why?
  • Consider asking students to make lists and then comparing
    these lists as a class.

  • Ask your students what they know about the Sun. Do they think
    the Sun is important? Why/why not? What would the Earth be like
    if there was no Sun? Why would it be like this?
  • Ask students to write short stories explaining why the
    Earth and the people living on it need the sun.

Discussion-Starters for Older Students

  • Vocabulary terms to discuss: Enticing; Habitable; Atmosphere;
    and, Geologically.

  • According to the article, Dr. Simitar Sasselov said, "Because they
    could stay geologically active for billions of years..such planets
    could be even more congenial for life than Earth." Ask your
    students to explain this statement. If the statement is correct,
    what implications could it have for life on Earth?
  • Students could develop news commentaries or podcasts in
    which they answer these questions.

  • The American government is trillions of dollars in debt? Do your
    students think that the government should be funding space
    exploration and space research when the money could be used for
    other things? Why/why not?
  • These questions could prompt an interesting class
    discussion.

  • The article explains that exploration of the Gliese 581 system will
    have to wait for future generations of space missions. Ask your
    students to imagine that they worked at NASA. Their
    responsibility is to plan future space missions for the next 100
    years. What do your students think will have to happen before
    astronauts visit this solar system? Explain!!
  • In groups of two or three, students could develop a long-
    term proposal in response to these questions.
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(C) 2007, Andrew Pass Educational Services, LLC.