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 evidence for the origin of life on Earth, and 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.
"It was interesting to read that the possibility of life on another planet isn't just science-fiction."Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"Even though I'm really afraid of life outside of Earth, it's still interesting to learn about."
"The origin of life; 'nuff said, extremely interesting."
"The Drake equation."
"DNA and the code of life."
"Evolution really intrigues me, I'm absolutely fascinated by the factors of the slow development of life up until when the human race began, then I get lost. I say that because I used to watch the show Ancient Aliens before before realizing I should just question everything they "teach" you on the History Channel. And there are so many theories as to how we developed into such a perfectly-structured form of life but the idea that other life off this planet came to increase our development seems plausible lol."
"I found the definition of a living thing interesting because when it's put into terms such as must be able to manipulate it's environment then you realize that, that really is what all living things do, and not just things."
"How much time and energy is spent trying to find extraterrestrial intelligence, it is not something I have really given much thought to other than when my brother tries to freak me out telling me aliens are real and whatnot."
"How we all started from single cells and ended up here today."
"I don't think I could ever solve the Drake equation, even if I tried."How important is it to you to know whether or not there may be life elsewhere other than on Earth?
"I found the Drake equation confusing, I would like to see how it can be used."
"Drake equation. Why does he only multiply by the stars in our galaxy, when he should multiply by the number of galaxies in our universe as well. Life it seems would be common if you include the number habitable zones in the entire universe."
"Geologic time. It's kind of hard to understand how life existed 3.4 billion years ago but there is no evidence of simple organisms until 600 million years ago."
"The different radio telescopes and how they are trying to communicate with other civilizations. I don't really understand the range of waves that can be detected and cannot."
| Unimportant: | ** [2] |
| Of little importance: | ** [2] |
| Somewhat important: | ***** [5] |
| Important: | ********* [9] |
| Very important: | ****** [6] |
Briefly explain your answer regarding the importance of knowing whether there may be life elsewhere other than on Earth.
"If we can find another planet that is suitable for life we can travel to it and create another planet to call home. Also, we could use the resources from that planet."Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"I am deathly afraid of aliens, so if they are out there I would very much like to know so I could build a safehouse or something."
"It's only somewhat important because we can almost create life in a lab artificially. Machines themselves are becoming more like life. We could feasibly program a robot to extract energy, maintain itself, modify its surroundings, survive, and reproduce (replicate). We could also send one of these self-replicating machines to another planet, programmed to get a city built for humans upon their later arrival."
"We need to know if there are other living things out there that may be able to help us out in the future."
"I wanna party with some aliens."
"To know that there is life other than us would be mind-blowing."
"I think if there is life outside of Earth it would be nice to know, but it wouldn't be detrimental to my sanity or anything like that."
"If there is other life out there it should be important to us because what if it can change our lives dramatically (good or bad). Knowledge is power."
"Because I believe they have already been here before and still are."
"I'm sure that there is life on other planets out of our solar system, I just want confirmation."
"It would depend on how much information we have on that life. For example if there are only plants that have life then I will be interested but not very interested. So it would depend on the context but it is still generally interesting."
"If there is any other life in the universe I would not be surprised, because the universe is massive. If there is life elsewhere I wonder what it is like."
"It's important to know whether or not there's life on somewhere else besides earth because for one, we'll know; and also maybe is life is sustained somewhere else, it could sustain us too. Earth's only temporary after all."
"Due to my overactive anxiety I think I would rather not know and be blissfully ignorant of this information."
"I'll probably be dead before any kind of evidence of extraterrestrial life arises. It would be neat if we discovered a planet that has the most chances of survival during this lifetime."
"P-dog do you think there are aliens?" (They're out there. Somewhere. I'd bet on it. Like, maybe a dollar.)
"In your opinion which is better: the Predator or the Alien?" (What about the Engineers? Can I choose them? Those guys were awesome, too, in their own way.)
"Do you ever wish that you could have an exciting life, but actually find a way to live it??" (Aside from Mrs. P-dog, my life is actually quite boring, thank you. P.S. Boring is good. No drama. No worries.)
