Classroom Materials
To ready the students for working in the lab, Scott Milroy gave three short preparatory lectures. Attached are the PowerPoint exhibits he used during his talks, as well as short lesson overviews that teachers can use as guides for themselves or handouts for students.
LESSON ONE—Project Introduction
Students are introduced in general terms to the hypothesis of the experiment—that cyanobacteria could grow in a Martian environment—and given an overview of both cyanobacteria and how conditions on Mars differ from Earth.
- LINK to Lesson 1 PowerPoint (7,238KB)
- LINK to Narrated Lesson 1 (40Mb)
LESSON TWO—Photobiology, Earth, and Mars
This lesson is a specific discussion of the chemical and biological processes that power life on Earth. After learning the science of life, students are asked to consider how Martian conditions might impact these processes and how they might replicate them in a lab to prove their hypothesis.
- LINK to Lesson 2 PowerPoint (9,654KB)
- LINK to Narrated Lesson 2 (70Mb)
LESSON THREE—Practical Aspects of Planning the Experiment
In this lecture, students are taken step-by-step through the process of planning an experiment of this magnitude—everything from where to order cyanobacteria and pure water to what kind of flasks and lab machinery to use to collect data.
- LINK to Lesson 3 PowerPoint (9,987KB)
- LINK to Narrated Lesson 3 (67MB)
