Educator Resources

QUESTION PROMPTS FOR EDUCATORS 

 

These questions are provided for educators who wish to have students reflect on their webinar experience. Some suggestions for how to use the questions include:

 

  • Provide the questions to students in advance. 
  • Allow students to choose just one or two of the questions to answer. 
  • Require students to write a solid paragraph, and remind them to check for spelling and grammar errors before turning it in.  
  • Challenge students to peer review for each other prior to submitting their paragraph. 
  • Offer feedback on their final reflection paragraphs. 

 

Webinar Title: 

 

Our Interconnected Earth: Climate Change, Recent Events, and Local Impact 

 

  1. Summarize how Dr. Taylor came to work in his current job. Consider education, but also mention other opportunities he may have shared such as internships, volunteer work, or early jobs. How is this similar or different to your current career plan? If you don’t have a career in mind yet, what advice do you think the speaker would give you about discovering what you want to do? 
  2. Using information and/or examples from the webinar as evidence, explain why it is important for research into climate change to continue. Think about the impacts you learned about, and the role research plays in solving problems. 
  3. List at least two of the NASA observations Dr. Taylor discussed and describe what those measurements tell us about Earth’s climate. Be specific, and make sure you explain how the observations are connected to our planet’s climate, not just weather events. 

 

Webinar Title:

 

Your Connection to the Cosmos: The Origins of Your Atoms. 

 

  1. Summarize how Dr. Murphy came to work in his current job. Consider education, but also mention other opportunities he may have shared such as internships, volunteer work, or early jobs. How is this similar or different to your current career plan? If you don’t have a career in mind yet, what advice do you think the speaker would give you about discovering what you want to do? 
  2. Create a timeline, storyboard, or infographic that you could use to teach someone else about the relationship between the Big Bang and the atoms that make up your body.  
  3. In the 1980s, astronomer Carl Sagan hosted a popular television series called Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. To quote from its first episode, “The cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECuarAmpK00) Explain at least two pieces of scientific evidence that supports Sagan’s statement.