Homeschool Days: The Search for Life beyond Earth

Event Details:

Join the Discovery Center the first Wednesday of each month for our in-person Homeschool Days. Where we dedicate our entire facility to helping Homeschooling groups and families teach their kids Science Standards all year long.

One of the biggest challenges for Homeschooling families is how to effectively meet and teach Science Standards when the last time many adults performed a science experiment was when they were back in high school.

January 5th is dedicated to learning about one of the fastest growing disciplines of space science, Astrobiology: the scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.

how NASA space missions cover all the major topics we need to teach our students in the Sciences (for examples):

• Physical Science: What physical properties and laws help us learn about and understand life?
• Life Science: How do we determine what is life? How do we know what to look for when searching for life?
• Earth & Space Science: Where on Earth do we look for life? Where in our solar system, or the universe, are we searching for life? What have we found so far?

Activities and demonstrations include:

• 11:00am workshop: Build your own Spectrometer! Learn about the science of light and how we use it to search for signs of life.
• 1:30pm workshop: Build a planet in a bottle! Learn about the different environments on other worlds and do an experiment to be able to compare the atmospheres of those different worlds
• Self-guided activities (available all day): Design an alien/Build an Exoplanet – This fun activity helps us understand the symbiosis between life forms and their environments
• A Game of Light Matching – Better understand the spectroscope you just built in the 11am workshop by comparing and matching spectrum samples to their core elements
• Science on a Sphere themed presentation – Astrobiology: What is it and what does it mean?
• Mars Robotics Lab: search for signs of life on Mars using a Mars Rover – how many signs of life will you find?

Please note, some activities are first come, first served due to limited capacity. Activities subject to change.

Passport Member Benefit – Complimentary Admission
Become a Passport Member: Discovery Center Passport