Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: Aliens Worksheet (2011)

Description

Hawking discusses many astrophysical and biological themes including panspermia, the goldilocks zone, evolution, the importance of liquid water, the necessity of vast epochs of time for evolution to occur, and the proper geological conditions for life to arise. He speculates on just what it means to call something “alive” and how likely it is that we could contact an alien civilization. Other scientific themes discussed include exobiology, ethnocentrism, galaxy formation, statistics, humanity’s insignificance, mass extinctions, planetary geology, star wobble, planet hunting, the universality of the laws of physics, the pseudoscience of alien abductions, and the perils of developing advanced technology without the means to responsibly use it.
This documentary is appropriate for the following classes: astronomy, physics, biology, general science, physical science, geology, and chemistry.
The documentary guide is 2 pages long, with a total of 24 higher-order thinking questions. The video is 43 minutes long, designed to be shown in one class with time left over to answer individual student questions or to facilitate a group discussion.

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