Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Students have a weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com), where they answer questions based on reading their textbook, material covered in previous lectures, opinion questions, and/or asking (anonymous) questions or making (anonymous) comments. Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect. Selected results/questions/comments are addressed by the instructor at the start of the following lecture.
The following questions were asked on reading textbook chapters and previewing presentations on the origin of life, a "Here Is Today" timeline, LEGO® washing tips and the extraterrestrial hypothesis.
Selected/edited responses are given below.
Describe something you found interesting from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.
"I enjoyed reading about how science is actively trying to figure where other life forms could exist, that its not a concept that's disregarded as conspiracy theory."
"That we can quantify how long the observable universe has existed and where humans and general biology fit into that timeline. I used to think history was infinitely long."
"The timeline of events that have happened that show how long it took for everything to happen in the early days of Earth. I found this very interesting because I love thinking about how insignificant everything is in an individual's life is and how the big picture is a lot more important."
"The idea that chemistry can turn into biology by building longer strands of molecules and stacking them on top of one another and enough time is pretty amazing. I find it very interesting that something non-living became living even though it took YEARS."
"The Drake Equation. I thought it was really awesome and interesting."
"It was cool learning about the possibilities of habitable planets with technological civilizations in the Milky Way."
"Seeing just how many factors go into calculating the likelihood of other life was interesting to me, because I've never considered just how perfect conditions would have to be to support it."
"Those crop circles in 2001 as a possible response to the radio message we sent into space 30 years ago."
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"The concept of the 'goldilocks planet' was confusing to me because I'm having trouble understanding how we came to know this."
"The Drake equation, because it is based off of so many random items it makes me believe that the formula would not be accurate."
"The Drake equation. How did it come to be or how were the different factors determined?"
"The Drake equation, because you have to factor in so many different things, and my head was spinning just reading through it, but if you take it slow enough it's kind of understandable."
"The only thing that was confusing was how they can put variables to stand in place of probabilities that a civilization could sustain itself and live long."
Briefly describe a difference between life and non-living things.
"Non-livings things do not exhibit any characteristics of life. They do not grow, respire, need energy, move, reproduce, evolve, or maintain homeostasis. Living things grow and reproduce."
"A living thing should be able to manipulate its environment while, either throughout generations or within its lifespan, adapt to changes."
"Things that are alive are living, breathing things, that can for the most part move, or at least grow. Non-living things are just things that just sit there and don't do anything until a living thing does something to the non-living thing. Probably not the best description but you get the idea."
"Something that is living is alive, and something that is non-living is something dead."
(Only correct responses shown.)
Time after the formation of Earth for single-cell life to arise: a medium amount of time (about 1 billion years) [50%]
Time for the first types of simple single-cell life to evolve into fishlike creatures: the longest amount of time (about 3 billion years) [45%]
Time for fishlike creatures to evolve into more complex land-based animals today: the shortest amount of time (about 0.5 billion years) [80%]
How important is it to you to know whether or not there may be life elsewhere other than on Earth?
Unimportant. [0] Of little importance. ** [2] Somewhat important. ****** [6] Important. ***** [5] Very important. ******* [7]
Briefly explain your answer regarding the importance of knowing whether there may be life elsewhere other than on Earth.
"Honestly, I feel that there has to be life elsewhere other than on Earth. We've learned about how big the galaxy and other galaxies are, so there's no way we're the only ones alive."
"As a human on Earth, I think our species as a whole has gotten filled with power and ego and believe that we are the pinnacle of biological evolution and apex predators. Knowing that there is other life forms out in the universe would humble us I suppose."
"While I won't be heartbroken if we never learn of other lifeforms within my lifetime it's such a fascinating and broadly-vast universe, I truly do believe there must be SOME form of other life beyond us, and the knowledge that will come from this, and the inevitable advances in our own knowledge would benefit from learning and committing extraterrestrial life into fact, and not speculation."
"It's important to know in case our world suddenly dies and we need a new home. Also because they might attack us."
"Why I feel it is very important for us to know if there are other forms of life besides on Earth is so we can either gain their wisdom or they (if they so desire) can learn from us and our mistakes as a planet. I also find that it is important because it would help humans to realize just how small and irrelevant we are and I feel as if humans need to be humbled."
"I'm not losing sleep over whether or not there is life somewhere other than earth. I like to think about it some times and it's fun to try and think of the different possibilities of how far and how developed they are, but I don't NEED to know."
"It would be cool but I doubt that we'll find them in my lifetime so why worry about it."
Which type of star would be least likely to have a planet that could support life?
Massive. ********* [9] Medium-mass. [0] Low-mass (red dwarf). ******** [8] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) *** [3]
Briefly explain your answer to the previous question (type of star least likely to have a planet that could support life).
"I think that it's probably the massive star because their lifetime is the shortest."
"Massive stars are the least likely to have a planet with complex forms of life because of how often these stars die and how fast they die."
"I don't believe that a red dwarf has enough light to be able to sustain complex life if it were to have planets orbiting it."
"Low-mass stars most likely wouldn't have enough energy to support life."
Describe what the Drake equation is used for.
"Estimating how many advanced civilizations there are in the Milky Way."
"The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy."
Implausible. * [1] Not very plausible. ********* [9] Somewhat plausible. ********** [10] Very plausible. [0] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) [0]
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Do you believe in extraterrestrial life? Not like 'humanoid' beings of science fiction, but living organisms out in the universe. Personally, I find living plants and possibly animals out in the universe, to be far more likely then, like, a Kyptonian society or any other super-intelligence forms of life. Not 'impossible,' but far less likely, your thoughts?"
"Do you believe in aliens?" (I would like to, but science says that I shouldn't until there is hard data.)
"How accurate is the Drake equation if the subsequent values become less certain?" (It doesn't have to be accurate to be useful, as it is a way to organize what you know versus what you don't know (yet) about estimating the number of technical extraterrestrial civilizations.)
"In your personal opinion, how important is it to you to know whether complex life exists outside of Earth?" (Kind of important--especially when it's my job to answer students questions about that.)
"Just how strong and precise would a laser have to be in order to create a crop circle like Chilbolton's from outer space?" (About as strong and precise as someone dragging a plywood board behind them as they walk around the field.)
"I once witnessed an unidentified flying object. I walked to a car across my friend's house at night looking at the clear night sky, and saw a plane cruising across the sky blinking its light. As I appreciated and watched it move slowly across the sky, it quickly changed direction upwards and away from with swiftness I didn't believe was possible then immediately faded from view as if it had accelerated at an unrealistic magnitude far, far away. The (what I believed was a plane) did not reappear in that clear night's sky, and I was left wondering where it had gone. All I saw was the trajectory of the blinking light change, and it fade into the distance; I can believe that the light could have burn out at a lucky moment, but I can't explain how suddenly it seemed to change course."
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