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A Novel Approach to Teaching a General Education Course on Astrobiology

Lior M. Burko
Lior M. Burko
   | 09. Aug. 2022
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Article Category: Research Note
Online veröffentlicht: 09. Aug. 2022
Seitenbereich: 18 - 29
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gsr-2022-0003
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© 2022 Lior M. Burko, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Astrobiology Knowledge Assessment for Undergraduates. This table is patterned after Table 1 in Foster and Drew (2009). We show the fraction of correct answers for questions in a multiple-choice format in which students had four possible choices to choose from.

Knowledge area Pretest (n = 21) Posttest (n = 22) Normalized gain Effect size P-value
1 The universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old. 0.57 ± 0.11 0.55 ± 0.11 −0.06 0.17 0.723
2 An astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. 0.52 ± 0.11 0.59 ± 0.10 0.14 0.44 0.018
3 Stellar parallax is the apparent shift in position of nearby stars as the Earth moves around the Sun. 0.43 ± 0.11 0.45 ± 0.11 0.05 0.17 0.277
4 The faint young Sun paradox suggests that the Sun was 30% less luminous in the past. 0.19 ± 0.09 0.50 ± 0.11 0.38 2.26 <1×10−3
5 When a sedimentary rock is completely melted it will re-solidify into an igneous rock. 0.38 ± 0.11 0.45 ± 0.11 0.12 0.49 0.022
6 The carbon cycle can’t easily correct for increasing levels of CO2 because the cycle operates far too slowly. 0.48 ± 0.11 0.50 ± 0.11 0.05 0.16 0.277
7 Severe long-term global cooling periods during Earth's history are known as Snowball Earth. 0.00 0.45 ± 0.11 0.45 4.28 <1×10−3
8 The molecular building blocks of life have been found on the Earth, in interstellar clouds and in meteorites. 0.67 ± 0.10 0.73 ± 0.09 0.18 0.43 0.023
9 The search for life in the Solar System is essentially a search for liquid water. 0.33 ± 0.10 0.50 ± 0.11 0.25 1.13 <1×10−3
10 The Cambrian Explosion began approximately 545 million years ago. 0.24 ± 0.09 0.14 ± 0.07 −0.13 0.86 1
11 A chemoautotroph is an organism that obtains its energy from chemical reactions and its carbon from the environment. 0.43 ± 0.11 0.55 ± 0.11 0.20 0.77 <1×10−3
12 Most of the extrasolar planets detected to date are found very close to their parent star. 0.19 ± 0.09 0.59 ± 0.10 0.49 2.96 <1×10−3
13 Current data suggest that the North Pole of Mars is made up of CO2 ice overlaying water ice. 0.14 ± 0.08 0.50 ± 0.11 0.42 2.72 <1×10−3
14 Liquid water cannot exist for very long on the surface of Mars because its atmosphere is too thin. 0.33 ± 0.10 0.50 ± 0.11 0.25 1.13 <1×10−3
15 The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program currently involves listening for signals broadcasted by extraterrestrial civilizations. 0.19 ± 0.09 0.41 ± 0.10 0.27 1.61 <1×10−3

Astrobiology Attitude Assessment for Undergraduates. This table is patterned after attitudinal questions included in Foster and Drew (2009). For each question students were asked to select one of five options in a Likert scale: Strongly agree (1 point), Somewhat agree (2 points), Neither agree nor disagree (3 points), somewhat disagree (4 points), and strongly disagree (5 points). Questions are phrased such that higher levels of self-assessment reward a lower score. The maximum score for each question is taken to be 1.

Question Pre-course (n = 21) Post-course (n = 22) Normalized gain Effect size
1 I can list and describe three sub-disciplines of Astrobiology. 4.6 ± 0.2 3.0 ± 0.2 0.45 5.9
2 I know the underlying principles of Darwinian evolution. 2.9 ± 0.2 1.9 ± 0.2 0.53 3.2
3 I can describe two survival mechanisms of an extremophilic microbe. 4.4 ± 0.2 2.3 ± 0.2 0.62 7.2
4 I can describe the steps of solar and planet formation. 3.5 ± 0.2 2.4 ± 0.2 0.45 3.5
5 I have developed science writing skills. 2.7 ± 0.2 2.1 ± 0.3 0.34 1.7
6 I understand the purpose and content of a primary literature research paper. 2.1 ± 0.2 1.7 ± 0.2 0.36 1.6
7 I am comfortable reading the Astrobiology primary literature. 2.8 ± 0.2 2.7 ± 0.3 0.05 0.26
8 I am interested in pursuing a career in science research. 3.9 ± 0.2 3.5 ± 0.2 0.15 1.4
9 I am interested in participating in Astrobiology research. 3.4 ± 0.3 3.4 ± 0.2 0.00 0.00

Science topics by chapter in Contact.

Chapter Number Science Content
1 Interaction of civilizations at much different technological levels; the number π, which is irrational, transcendental, and normal (although there is no proof as yet about the normality of π. This question becomes pivotal to the ending of Contact); the epistemology of science; the apparent rotation of the celestial sphere and the Earth's spin; and ancient Greek astronomy.
2 Women participation in science; The Fermi paradox (specifically here, the Zoo Hypothesis); the scale of the universe; light pollution; the planet Venus (romantic view, strong radio emission, runaway greenhouse effect); the cosmic 3K background radiation.
3 The inverse square law for light; white noise; the electromagnetic spectrum; the Kardashev scale; the Alpha Centauri system (triple star system, exoplanet in the habitable zone); bandwidth of signal and information content; absorption and scattering of radiation by dust; radio astronomy; quasars and pulsars; the Voyager missions; constellations.
4 Tour of the solar system (from the outside in); sidereal motion; proper motion; planetary formation process; sources of radio interference and disruption; prime numbers; binary numbers; international and global nature of science.
5 Identify Vega in the night sky and Vega's properties; proper and radial motion of stars; Fermat's last theorem and the Goldbach conjecture; the hydrogen 21 cm and the hydroxyl 18 cm spectral lines, polarization modulation.
6 Occam's razor; the “God's in the gaps” argument; skepticism in science; the scientific method; remote sensing; learning about exoplanets from large distances; rarity of newly emergent technological civilizations; UFOs and their explanations.
7 Space race: American and Soviet achievements; space exploration missions (flyby, orbiter, lander or probe, sample return missions); organic molecules in space; Environmental requirements for life – building blocks (Miller-Urey experiment, Viking experiments), energy (sunlight, tidal friction), liquid medium (liquid water and its significance for life, alternative liquids options for life (NH3, CH3OH, CH4, C2H6)—advantages and disadvantages); human evolution; international nature of modern science; use of prime numbers in SETI messages.
8 Criticism of science; science as a driving force for technology; science communication and outreach; correcting nature of science; open-ended goals of science; scientific method; ancient and modern science; Newtonian gravity and Einstein's theories of relativity; impossibility of faster than light travel; age of the Earth and planetary system formation; plate tectonics and continental drift; theory of evolution.
9 Peer-review nature of science publications; how science works; what is consciousness; evolution of languages as an analogue to biological evolution; the Drake equation; solar flares and the active Sun.
10 Science and determinism; randomness and chance in physical processes; Foucault's pendulum; rotation of the Earth; skepticism in science; empiricism in science; scientific method; self-correcting nature of science; science journals and publications; precession of the equinoxes; cosmic background radiation and its isotropy; the Sun as a star; properties and conditions on Mars; Newtonian gravity and the inverse square law; magnetic dipoles; the double helix structure of DNA; no privileged frames of reference; the speed of light as a universal speed limit; stellar types and the H-R diagram; Occam's razor; mass extinctions; the “God in the gaps” argument and creationism.
11 Space colonization; Mars terraforming; Pauli exclusion principle; nuclear disarmament; cartography and projections; Platonic solids; white noise; unity of the human species.
12 Organic chemistry; symmetry and analogies (from alphabets, religions); origin of life; isomers; nucleic acid replication; nuclear energy; the Viking experiments.
13 Correlation v. causation; signal frequency and modulation; the electromagnetic spectrum.
14 What is life? And definitions; viruses; proofs in mathematics; curved space and time; the periodic table of the elements; phase modulation; units of measurements; air turbulence and twinkling of stars; time dilation and relativity; the 1420 MHz line; pendulums; conservation of energy; evolution as a stochastic process; superunification of interactions; atomic motion in matter.
15 Prognostication v. prediction; ammonia as an alternative to water as a solvent; instruments of ancient astronomy; Kepler's laws of planetary motion; gravitational waves and gravitational wave detection; Lysenko and his effect on Soviet molecular biology.
16 Human body in zero gravity conditions; space radiation and its interaction with the human body; controls in scientific experiments; solar flares; ozone and its importance for life; oxygen and its importance for life.
17 Geology and the time scale required for evolution; the galactic and stellar habitable zones; comets; panspermia; geosynchronous orbits; information and life; language and cognition and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
18 Plate tectonics; stellar evolution; origin of the elements in the universe and on Earth; superunification; stellar classification; meteors.
19 Platonic solids; black holes, event horizon, and singularity; causality; tidal forces; spaghettification; the second law of thermodynamics and entropy; stellar corona; planetary formation; gaps in circumstellar disks; shadows in optics; colors of stars and their abundance.
20 First life on Earth on land; spacetime curvature; the Kerr black hole; liquid breathing; longevity of advanced civilizations; the center of the Milky Way and the black hole at its center; wormholes; radiation coming out of black holes; expansion of the universe; future evolution of the universe and the Big Chill.
21 Importance of evidence for science; tensile and compressional stresses; intense radiation and its effects on structures; radioactivity and induced radioactivity; cosmic rays; tidal forces; reentrance through the atmosphere; causality.
22 Conditions in interstellar space; gravitational assist.
23 Maxwell's equations; the Ampere-Maxwell law; wormholes and the Einstein-Rosen bridge; age at which scientists make groundbreaking discoveries; nuclear explosions, radiation contamination; human place in the universe; angular resolution and telescopes; pi as a normal number.
24 Transcendental numbers; geometry of the universe; the Kardashev scale and classification of civilizations; wormholes; black holes; probability for a string of 0s and 1s inside an irrational number and the probability for a coded message.
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