Resources for Teachers

Modules 3 and 5 from the ASC curriculum are included in the GRASP program.

Module 3: A Changing World in a Changing Universe

    • What was the environment like in early Earth?
      • Why is water ideally suited for life?
      • Geologic evidence of water
    • Early Earth—Timeline

Field trip to look for fossils

  • Activity of arranging fossils to make timeline
  • Build a timeline of early earth
  • Hadean to Pre-Cambrian period – what was earth like and how did it change?
  • Domains of life chart  & when we think they arose – prokaryotes/eukaryotes
    • The discovery of archaea and extreme habitats

Activity on the importance of pH, temperature, and salinity to life

    • The discovery of extreme organisms on Earth as a precursor to discovering life in the Solar System?
      • Importance of volcanoes to the cycling of nutrients
        • Why do scientists who study earth’s extremophiles study where they do?
        • Importance of geologic events to life – plate tectonics – results in rocks

Module 5: How and why do astrobiologists study comets?

    • Introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum
      • Prism to show visible light
      • Types of waves – review of frequency, amplitude
    • Color (spectral) signatures as fingerprints – light reflectance
      • ALTA reflectance spectrometer activities
    • How do scientists know what liquids & gases planets/planetesimals contain?
      • Absorption vs. emission spectra
      • Investigate the chemical components of comets by spectral analysis
        • IR spectroscopy exercise – analyzing spectral bands of comets researched in the web crawl
        • Visible light spectroscopy with various light sources

Students, Teachers, and Volunteers Assemble Rock Collections

During this first year of the GRASP project, rock samples have been obtained from various groups, including many samples obtained on GRASP field trips by students themselves. Bryan Byrne and Leigh Arino de la Rubia brought back approximately 80 pounds of rock samples from the field trip into the desert during the Using Earth to Explore Mars Workshop in March 2007. These rocks have become part of the permanent GRASP collection to be used for analysis activities.