Students and Teachers Exploring Live the Limits of Life on Earth with a Nasa/seti Expedition to the Highest Lakes on Earth

Mathematics – Logic

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5700 Planetology: Fluid Planets, 1729 Planetology, 0830 Teacher Training, 0850 Geoscience Education Research

Scientific paper

"Life at the Extreme" is an education and public outreach (E/PO) project that engaged teachers and 4-12th grade students (an in part, Prek-3rd grade students) in an internet-based, virtual expedition with scientists as they conducted experiments in a unique planetary analog environment in the Bolivian High-Andes at nearly 6,000 m (~20,000ft). Through high altitude diving and sampling, they explored the Licancabur volcano summit lake, which is one of the closest analogs to ancient lakes on Mars. Their goal was to characterize the environment and to study the defense strategies of life against extreme physical conditions in order to understand the biological potential of Mars and prepare future planetary missions. This "virtual field" was in the form of an interactive web site, live interactive discussions, a live video webcast with the San Francisco Exploratorium, and videotapes. Through this medium, about 2,700 students, 90 schools and teachers were able to directly participate and extend their knowledge of scientific processes as they explored an extreme and unique terrestrial environment. In the weeks leading up to the expedition, and during in-the-field activities, students were able to communicate with scientists as they prepared for and conducted scientific investigations. The general public could follow the expedition as well on the web. Overall, the website received ~70,000 hits from all over the world during the time of the expedition. Allowing this access to scientists as they performed their investigations proved invaluable as students understood the implications of scientific work. The broader impact of this experience provided ground work for other educational institutions to conduct similar activities with leading scientists and bridge the gap that often exists between scientists and education. The project was conducted in partnership with the NASA's Ames Research Center's expedition to the Licancabur volcano, located on the border between Chile and Bolivia and is the location of one of the least explored lakes in the world. K-12 educators played a key roll in the development and implementation of curriculum for this project. In 2002, a teacher accompanied the scientific team to the summit to document their research for the benefit of all k-12 educators both as the exploration occurs and as an ongoing educational enquiry. The virtual field experience was funded through an IDEAS (The Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science) grant. The 2002-03, and 2003-04 virtual field experience can be found at: http://www.extremeenvironment.com.

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