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Stars, Planets, Life, and the Universe
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Origins!
The first of two Web Seminars on NASA's Stars, Planets,
Life, and the Universe was held on Thursday, May 4, 2006, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00
p.m. Eastern time. The presenter was Dr. Matt Bobrowsky, astronomer
at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Bobrowsky's presentation
focused on the origin of stars, planets, and life in the universe. Among the participants
were a few teachers who had attended the face-to-face symposium
at the NSTA National Conference in Science Education in Anaheim, CA.
The session started with a general overview of the NSTA Web Seminar tools and how
they can be used to facilitate interaction between the participants and the presenters.
Forty-one participants were present in addition to the presenter and the NSTA staff.
Participating educators represented the states of Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho,
Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. One teacher joined the
group from Canada.
Bobrowsky started the presentation with two poll questions to get a sense of the
participants' ideas regarding the existence of life and intelligent life in the
universe. He continued to talk about our galaxy and star formation. He showed the
audience beautiful images of galaxies and described the advantage of using different
types of detectors that can see different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum
to study these objects. Dr. Bobrowsky talked about the Big Bang and asked participants
to vote on the most abundant element in the universe: hydrogen. The connection between
star formation and the origin life exists at the chemical level. The same elements
that are present in life forms are also present on stars. Such elements include
hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Dr. Matt also talked about life on Earth. He explained that life on Earth is carbon-based
and requires liquid water. Liquid water can only exist at specific temperatures.
Planets that support life as we know it must reside at a distance from its parent
star where liquid water can exist. These are the type of planets NASA will be looking
for with missions like Kepler and Terrestrial Planet Finder. Dr. Bobrowsky described
two methods used by astronomers to detect planets orbiting other stars: looking
at the Doppler effect (wobbling stars) and for transits of planets. After a new
planet is found, astronomers look for signs of life, like atmospheric composition,
unusual patterns of electromagnetic radiation, and seasonal changes. All during
his presentation, Dr. Bobrowsky showed and described awesome images of different
astronomical objects taken with telescopes, like the Hubble Space Telescope. Throughout
the presentation there were several opportunities for the participants to interact
with each other and with the presenters by answering poll questions, chatting, stamping,
and marking.
Here are some comments provided by the participants at the end of the Web Seminar:
- "I love how these seminars reactivate prior learning as well as add to my knowledge
base. Also, I really enjoy listening/chatting with teacher colleagues around the
world!"
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"Matt is a terrific speaker and brought the content to the teachers without talking
down to us. He's terrific."
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"Very good use of interactive components. Willing to take all backgrounds of participants.
Great pictures. Learned more about the chemistry related to life and star impact
on life. Makes better sense and can tie it together to tell others about it."
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"I learned about all the connections that were not known about when I was in school.
I learned evidence for how life, space, stars and planets are connected. I learned
a great deal about our solar system and about how they are formed. It renewed interest."
Thanks to the participants and Dr. Bobrowsky for the learning opportunity, the interactions,
and a job well done!
Web Seminar I Resources
Archive
See a recorded
version of the Web Seminar.
PowerPoint Presentation
- PC Download: To view online select link below to display in browser.
To download PowerPoint slides to your desktop right click on the link below and
select "save target as" from the drop down menu.
- MAC Download: To download PowerPoint slides to your desktop control
+ click on the link below and select "Save Linked File As..."
- Download File Web Seminar I
PowerPoint Presentation
(506 KB)
Websites
For more information contact symposia@nsta.org
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