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Dear All, The Invent an Alien activity asks students to create a 3-dimensional being (an alien) from another planet, moon, or asteroids in the solar system. The goal of the activity is to have students share what they know about their assigned solar system object by describing the "alien." For example, a student might say, "my alien from Mars is red because of the iron on the surface of the planet", or, "my alien from Jupiter is short due to the strong pull of gravity that the planet exerts on objects within its atmosphere." You guys did a great job in class on Thursday with your presentations but we did not have time to talk about the activity like we did with all the other activities we did in class. After doing the activity, as teachers, we should reflect about the pros and cons of doing this activity with our students. What are your thoughts? What did you like about the activity? What didn't you like about it? Would you do it with your students? Why or why not? How would you change it for your students, if in any way? After a few posts from the UMBC pre-service teachers about this topic, I would like to invite the Learning Center Online Advisors to feel free to join in the conversation. Let's talk. Flavio.

Hi Flavio, I've done a project very similar to this - so I wanted to post a comment & have the system notify me when other comments are made to the discussion. I'll wait to chime back in after the cohort members have had a chance to respond. Looking forward to hearing about this project, Kendra

Invent an Alien Activity is an excellent place to learn what the students think and/or know about the concepts of mass and weight throughout the universe. Please be sure to brainstorm this topic with them and guide them to understand the meaning of mass. It is critical to student understanding of all space-ventures. It also offers students opportunities to design web-based, interactive presentations of their alien and its mass and weight on various planets. This enables students to explain their understanding to others in creative ways and also allows others to interview the student, elementary, middle, and upper school, as to why they should care about concepts. What do other teachers or pre-service teachers think? Patty

I am talking about Invent An Alien from a reflective perspective. I have done a very similar activity in the past. I think it could be a value added learning experience dependent on the criteria we determined for the alien. With the students knowing that my goal was to be able to determine their understanding about a particular place in the solar system, we would work together to develop the criteria each alien and/or each alien explanation would need to meet. I do this is a task that will engage student and that is half the battle as long as the rigor of the science content is not compromised in the assignment. Kathy

Hi Group, I created a lesson for the Space Foundation tbat is like the activity above... I will look for it and upload if you all are interested. It was geared to my middle school students, so I helped guide them through the decision making process. Happy Thanksgiving! Liz

As promised I finally found the activity... Here you go if you are interested Thanks Liz

Attachments

Animals_Out_of_This_World.pdf (0.14 Mb)

Animals_out_of_this_World_WS.pdf (0.11 Mb)

I did a very similar project with my seventh grade students. I taught in the inner city at the time, and many of my students read several years below grade level. I partnered with the language arts teacher to use "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeline L'Engle (my favorite childhood book). I pointed out how the winged creatures of planet Uriel were suited for life on their planet - how the soaring mountains and atmosphere had shaped their evolution. Then we looked at the sightless creatures that inhabited the bland planet of Ixchel and how they had adapted to live in such low levels of light. I could have easily used real animals and habitats from planet earth, but I wanted to get their imaginations going. Students then chose any planet in our solar system and learned all they could about it. Finally, they designed an alien for their planet and its habitat. They had to be able to support their alien's characteristics based on the conditions found on the planet. It was very interesting and the students really had some amazing ideas. I like this project because it never gets boring - kids keep coming up with the most amazing ideas each time.

This activity offers a great opportunity for inquiry-based learning. As students create their alien, they will be able to explore many questions. Just a few might be 1) silicon vs. carbon-based life forms, 2) affects of gravity on evolution 3)can organisms evolve in a non-oxygenated atmosphere 4)biodiversity on other planets. These are just a few ideas, but the students' questions could be limitless. Inventing an alien also gives students a chance to experience cross-curricular connections. Making a model of an alien ties into creativeness and art. As Patty pointed out, this activity also lends itself to mass and density (math and physical science). Investigating the possibility of silicon-based life forms ties chemistry and biology together. As Kendra pointed out, this activity could also be integrated with language arts. For younger students, an activity like this can be used to teach ideas like the difference between observation and inference. I've attached a chapter from Picture Perfect Science Lessons[i]that uses [i]Dr Xargle's Book of Earthlets and a lesson plan I wrote for 4th graders to do a 'Mystery Lab' using the concepts from the book.

Attachments

Earth Hounds: Dr. Xargle's Book of Earth Hounds and Seven Blind Mice (Book Chapter)

4th_Grade_Dr._Xargles_Mystery_Lab.docx (0.09 Mb)

It is amazing to read the various ways that teachers might implement this idea in their classrooms to serve a multiplicity of functions! I have been teaching an inservice course to teachers entitled "Fundamentals of Astronomy" and usually have many elementary level teachers who need to get another science credit for their certification. They are generally not very knowledgable about astronomy, which makes teaching the class even more exciting. I am always looking for ideas they can use to teach astronomy-related content in a cross-disciplinary fashion to assist them in finding meaningful ways to integrate their learning into their classrooms. Inventing an Alien sounds like a very promising activity that could be used to teach a variety of subjects; including biology, geology, math, language arts, technology, and art at the elementary levels. I will run it by my teachers this week and see what they think about using this topic to build a series of cross-curricular lessons.

It is amazing to read the various ways that teachers might implement this idea in their classrooms to serve a multiplicity of functions! I have been teaching an inservice course to teachers entitled "Fundamentals of Astronomy" and usually have many elementary level teachers who need to get another science credit for their certification. They are generally not very knowledgable about astronomy, which makes teaching the class even more exciting. I am always looking for ideas they can use to teach astronomy-related content in a cross-disciplinary fashion to assist them in finding meaningful ways to integrate their learning into their classrooms. Inventing an Alien sounds like a very promising activity that could be used to teach a variety of subjects; including biology, geology, math, language arts, technology, and art at the elementary levels. I will run it by my teachers this week and see what they think about using this topic to build a series of cross-curricular lessons.

The topic of designing an alien suited to another planet offers numerous leanring opportunities. The obvious are the scientific ones on ways it is suited for a planet/environment with specisfic condistions. Then there are the aspects that could be used to show relationships between other cultures...your alien must adapt to conditions of its envirnoment, just as immigrants must...physical, emotional, cultural. This also humanizes science... UMBC pre-service teacher..Sharon Winton

Dear Sharon, Agreed. This activity has potential. I am curious, what is your planet? What are the elements of the planet that you plan to incorporate on your alien and how? Flavio.

My planet is Neptune. I am exploring hydrogen, helium, and methane gases and how this will influence "life" on this planet. Also, I am trying to gain more understanding of the high-speed winds and how I might incorporate this in my alien. This lesson has the potential to expand learning in numerous dimensions: chemical and biological certainly, as well as astronomical, and interisciplinary with English, History, Art, and even Music. Sharon

Hi there - do you mind if I play devil's advocate for a minute? I love the activity but I'm a stop and consider another viewpoint type of gal.... Are there any downsides to this activity that should be accounted for? I am wondering about how we sometimes feed the misconceptions about what life might look like in the universe - by creating an alien - do students tend to create aliens in the mold of ET the same way they create scientists who resemble Bil Nye or Einstein? Also, having elementary students drawing conclusions based on their own research such as the examples Falvio provided seem realistic, but a lot of this depends on the background knowledge of the teachers and so we have another place where we can foster misunderstandings if we do not ground ourselves in adequate content background knowledge and good resources.

I am an elementary teacher candidate who is working on creating an alien. My planet is Jupiter, the largest one - gas giant. I am yet to learn about all the Jupiter characteristics that influence my alien's design but I am already speculating that this creature must be able to "stay afloat". I know for sure that my final product will not be anything artistic and I will dread the part where I will need to make it but I will surely enjoy the other part. I think this is a very good way to conduct research with a purpose. I know that at the end of this activity I will be able not only inform my colleagues what Jupiter is like but also interpret and explain what it means for anything/anybody wanting to exist there. I will let you know how it worked out. Juraj

The activity of inventing an alien is currently something I am trying to do in my class. I am a student at UMBC, and am studying to be an elementary school teacher. When I first heard about this activity, I was nervous and did not quite understand how a person could represent a planet or asteroid, through a 3 dimesional alien. But after researching and finding more about my asteroid (comets), I realized how great of an idea this was. Every planet in the solar system has tons of characteristics and through this creation of an alien, a person can really demenostrate their knowledge of these characterisitics and will learn a lot through this process. I have not started the activity yet, but I am very excited to get started now that I understand the wonderful outcome it posesses! Jessica Valenstein

I Love this idea. Thanks Flavio and everyone else! Normally we randomly choose different space objects and the students work with one-3 partners on creating a planet, asteroid, etc. This year we will definitely have them create an alien, using recycled items. I can't wait. Thanks again! Ricki Luster

Another UMBC student chiming in...I love the idea of using this activity in elementary school. I'm sure the thought of imagining up their own alien is very exciting and motivating to most children. I also like that the activity is adaptable for many grade and ability levels by simply changing criteria from simple to more complex. The example that Flavio used of the alien being red because Mars is iron-rich is a relatively straight forward way of presenting the information. At the same time, it still demonstrates understanding. An older student or one working at a higher level may take a more abstract, nuanced way of presenting information. I don't have any cons about the activity so far since I'm only at the beginning stages of working through it. Other posters have brought up some good points, though. I agree that students need to have a clear understanding of the goal of the lesson so that goal doesn't get lost in their desire to come up with imaginative creatures. I also agree with what someone else said about making sure they understand the concepts before they are given the assignment. I will have more thoughts after I actually make my alien! Amy

Just finished this activity, I thought that it had many positives and few negative aspects to it. On the positive side, I feel like it is a great way to get children involved in a hands on activity. Visual learning is very effective, and combined with kinesthetic learning creates a power memorization tool. The student is made to research the planet which reinforces learning when they have to take elements from that planet and create something that lives and breathes with them. On a side note, I was saddened when I couldn't draw any tangible memories of science projects that I conducted in elementary school. For that matter, hardly any of my classmates could either. Does this mean that the science projects we performed were not effective? Does this mean that learning was not achieved? How long is learning supposed to last? What if I learned something for a year and then I forget it, does that count as learning? On the downside, the arts and crafts element of the project can be frustrating for some students who are not inclined toward that style of learning. Furthermore, much of the research is hypothesizing as to an alien that could exist on a planet. Take Mars for example, based on the information we currently know, there is no life forms on Mars. A student is made to create an alien life that could live there, but much of the creation may not be based in real science due to the fact that these creatures do not exist (as far as we know). Are we all supposed to suspend reality, bend reality, or fill in the cracks with what could be called pseudo science in order to make the alien a plausible reality? Is this making any sense? Thanks for reading.

Hi Royce, You brought up some interesting points, especially about bending reality and blurring the line between it and fiction. Allow me to take a slight detour and use another, less fantastical, project as an example. My state standards require students to "understand that multiple organ systems work together to sustain life." So I use ferrofluid to teach this. Ferrofluid, for those not familiar with it, is a type of fluid that has nano-sized magnetic particles suspended within it. It has been used in research to treat cancer. The fluid is injected into the tumor and magnets are used to create friction/heat within the tumor that will ultimately kill the tumor without damaging surrounding cells/tissues. So I introduce this concept to my students along with a "toolbox" that contains a vial of ferrofluid, magnets, and several methods of delivery - a "patch", a syringe (no needle, of course), and inhaler, etc. Then I hand them their case file. Each case is a "medical history" of a fictional patient. It comes with a "photo" of their "patient" as well as some information about the type of cancer they have and where the tumor is located. It also includes multiple anatomical charts of the various organ systems in the body. Their objective is to introduce the ferrofluid to their patient's body, treat the tumor, and then use magnets to lead the ferrofluid out of the body since it can't be excreted or absorbed (I have no idea if this part is true, but I want them to deal with as many organ systems as possible). I put a requirement on each chart (there are different cases based on difficulty - gotta differentiate!) about how many organ systems must be involved in their treatment plan. This project fascinates me every time. My seventh graders argue over whether it would be better to use the internal or external carotid artery. They debate whether or not the hepatic vein would be a better choice or if it would put too much strain on the liver and impact its ability to filter. They discuss the various ways to reach the third ventricle of the brain. Seventh graders! Are their solutions realistic? Of course not. So why am I encouraging them to come up with these treatment plans that could never, ever be used in reality. Look back at my learning objective. My objective is not to teach them how to treat cancer. I need them to understand that their multiple organ systems overlap and work together to keep them alive. And my project works for this objective. Now back to inventing an alien. What's the learning objective? If it's to learn about the conditions on other planets [b][i][u][u]and[/u][/u][/i][/b] you require them to back up their design with that information - then I think it's an excellent project. It's all in holding them accountable. If they invent an ET-style alien, they need to be required to explain [b][i][u]why[/u][/i][/b]their alien has a head shaped like a truck headlight, an expanding neck, and telekinetic powers. What conditions on his planet would encourage him to evolve that way? I love these kinds of projects! Has anyone else used a project that required students to come up with unrealistic solutions/theories/answers in order to meet a state standard or learning objective? How well did it work? What did your students, administrators, colleagues, and parents think of it? Thanks! Kendra

Hi Royce, Your post brings up some excellent discussion points! Astrobiology has always fascinated me, but our investigations into the plausibility of life, not on our planet, does bring up several questions. You asked, [i] Are we all supposed to suspend reality, bend reality, or fill in the cracks with what could be called pseudo science in order to make the alien a plausible reality?[/i] I'd argue that we may not need to "suspend or bend reality", but rather use our imaginations to expand our definitions of the requirements for life. For instance, over the past 40 years, scientists have discovered life in environments previously considered unable to sustain living organisms. Some of these include the discovery of microorganisms in the Yellowstone hot springs in 1966, the discovery of life 1000 m below the antarctic ice sheets in 2003, and bacterial mats found in the Dead Sea in 2010. Prior to these discoveries, these environments were considered to be "too hot", "too cold", or "too salty" to sustain life. What if scientists settled for "Life can't exist there, so let's not even look"? These discoveries open new horizons for the conditions necessary for life to exist elsewhere in our universe. In my opinion, giving our students the opportunity to explore ideas that "bend" our current reality may help inspire them to research these "fanciful" ideas, eventually leading to further discoveries. There are many examples of science fiction becoming science reality. For example, Jules Verne had the outlandish ideas of [i]20,000 Leagues Under the Sea[/i] and [i]From the Earth to the Moon[/i]. At the time, these were crazy, outlandish ideas, but once technology caught up to our imaginations, these fictional ideas became a reality. It is possible that some of the fictional ideas your students come up with today may lead to further scientific discoveries in the future? This is a great discussion! I look forward to reading other educator's view points. Maureen

Kendra, I LOVE the idea of giving students a "patient" to work on. I wonder how many of your students will end up becoming doctors.

Building an alien in the classrooms I am also a UMBC student who as we speak is working on building my alien. I wanted to also give feedback (pros and cons)on this specific assignment. Pros: I think that this is a great project for students in the upper elementary/middle school. It teaches them how to research and learn about a topic in depth, gives them an opportunity to use their imagination and think outside the box. I also think that by doing this assignment, it helps other students in the class learn about the planet in an easy fast way (this is because the alien has characteristics that are unique to that planet).Also, it is fun and different so it makes it interesting. That being said I do feel that looking at this project from a student's view, there are some cons:I think someone might have mentioned this but not everyone is creative and that can scare children and make them feel uncomfortable. If I had to give this assignment out, I would have given the option of choosing different elements such as writing a story, building an alien, drawing, etc. This way students can choose what they feel most strongest in. The end result is still the same and that is what is important. In addition,some students don't have resources such as money to buy materials for this project. This can be an uncomfortable situation and teachers should always think of these things when giving assignments such as this. My suggestion is maybe providing materials that can be used to build this or maybe grouping the students into groups. This way the cost can be split. Groups of two is also a good way to listen to other ideas and learn to work in teams. Overall, I think this can be an amazing project that students will enjoy and learn from both from each other and the topic itself.

I too am a current UMBC student who has recently completed inventing an Alien. I think this project has strong merits for actively involving students in learning about a particular planet, not only because the activity incorporates spatial as well as kinesthetic activities, but also because many children, as well as adults, are fascinated with Aliens! Through my education classes it has been emphasized repeatedly that connecting with students’ interests is a big part of engaging them in the learning process. I do have to admit that I became a little sidetracked trying to justify why my Alien would be able to survive on my assigned planet, Uranus. However this resulted in more science exploration regarding reactors to conduct energy from hydrogen, and how deep sea creatures on Earth survive pressure. I believe all of this will prove beneficial for my own science knowledge. I found some of the earlier posts, regarding if there is a concern that we may be confusing students on what is possible and what is not, very interesting. I think that if the teacher is clear that the goal is to invent an Alien that ‘represents’ the planet’s characteristics, that should clear up any miscommunication. On the other hand, I think limiting students’ imaginations is not positive, and it is a good thing to ask students to imagine what would it take to survive on a planet that has been deemed uninhabitable. I’m sure at one point it was thought it would be impossible for humans to walk in space, or land on the moon. I’m not saying Uranus can or will ever support life forms, just that I believe students should be allowed to imagine the ‘what if’, and then be encouraged to do corresponding research to see what they determine is possible, or not. In the article, Alien contact: Proof positive or a case of let’s play pretend?, the author, Michael A. DiSpezio, states that, “Even though there’s no ‘proof positive’ for extraterrestrial life-forms of any flavor, by offering up an alluring set of answers, we’ve set the stage for applying a battery of critical-thinking skills to the valid analysis of scientific data.” Of course there are many other ways to actively engage students in researching planets such as the planet brochure project we recently did in our class. Planet Venn diagrams could be used to compare and contrast planets, and timelines could be interesting tools to trace the history of plants. I also think student theatre could be a good learning tool. Students could create costumes for their assigned planets and act out their planet’s characteristics. For Uranus the costume could be the blue-green of the planet with many rings and many moons. The student could explain the composition of the planet’s various layers. The student could rotate backwards and demonstrate the unique tilt of the axis. I think it could be fun to have a Solar System play where students play the parts of planets, comets, Sun, stars, etc. Parents could be invited to watch. However with all that said; I still come back to the point that there is something uniquely attention grabbing about the concept of ‘Inventing an Alien’!

Attachments

Alien_contact_Proof_positive_or_a_case_of_lets_play_pretend_DiSpezio.pdf (0.35 Mb)

Revital said, 'That being said I do feel that looking at this project from a student's view, there are some cons:I think someone might have mentioned this but not everyone is creative and that can scare children and make them feel uncomfortable. If I had to give this assignment out, I would have given the option of choosing different elements such as writing a story, building an alien, drawing, etc. This way students can choose what they feel most strongest in.' I both agree and disagree with your perspective. Yes, some students are more creative than others. However, I believe creativity is a skill - just like playing a musical instrument. Not everyone has the potential to become the next Mozart, but everyone (barring disability) can become a competent player because it's a skill, and skills can be taught. Learning how to think creatively is one of the greatest lessons I think we can give our students - without creative thinkers we would have the world we have today (technology, etc.). Are there times I will let students choose an alternative assignment? Of course. But not always. Writing is another skill that not every student is comfortable with. That doesn't mean we shouldn't expect every student to be competent writers. What do other educators think? [url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/working-creativity] Psychology Today: Working Creativity - Tapping in to Your Everyday Genius[/url] [url=http://people.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/arted/tc.html] Goshen College: Teaching Creativity[/url]

The great thing about this project is it can be easily be adjusted to work for all students diversities in learning. If you wanted to stay strictly create an alien project, a way you could assist other children who are not as artistically creative is by pairing students up strategically according to learning preferences. Thus from that students could can work on team work skills too. Also, if you wanted students to work individually, this can still be an effective way for non-creative students to be creative/clever verbally. One student in our class used a rock to represent Mercury. This rock had red spots on it and she used this physical trait to talk about how Mercury is the closest to the sun thus as a result has sunburn. Also, this alien's rock represented Mercury by possessing an abundance of craters similar to the composition of the alien. Otherwise, instead of creating an alien, like mentioned before from another person in a post above, you could allow other students to have an option of making a rap, brochure, etc.

I enjoyed the alien activity. I think it is a great way to get students to think outside of the box. One of the requirements was to make the alien represent our assigned planet but this was much more difficult than I had anticipated. However, when I thought about making it into a story, the ideas started flowing. The only thing that I didn't really like about the project was the directions. The directions for the one page paper were offputting because I wasn't sure if you wanted a story or a description. The best thing about the alien was being hands on and turning my ideas into an actual model. I would do this activity with my students but my main emphasis would be on have the students be as creative as they can with the facts about their planets. I wanted to share that when I was construction my alien, Neppy, at work, the students in my beore and after school program really liked him. Almost all of them asked me if they could help. I made a contest out of who could create the most exciting alien face. When my alien was finished, it was all they could talk about. One more, my alien even played heads-up seven-up with them. The kids really got a kick out of that. This is a great assignment even if it isn't for a grade. For one of my enrichment activities, the students are going to listen to a book about the planets and pick their favorite one. Then they will make their own alien. I have already begun to save materials for this mini-project. The best thing is, this is only a before and after school program, but they are still learning without even knowing it.

The Mars critter activity is also found in the Destination Mars teacher Guide produced by NASA in 1997. Connecting this activity to the study of characteristics of living things on Earth aligns it with the Biology or Life Science standards for most states. Once the class has designed a host of "critters" the scientific community might consider creating a dichotomous key to classify their new life forms. The process might span the course a an entire unit of study depending upon the level of students and the number of standards you wish to incorporate.

Attachments

Mars_Critter_Activity.pdf (0.09 Mb)

Mars_Critters.pdf (0.09 Mb)

Great activity I know elementary students will love it. I was planning something similar with my class as well. One thing I'm sure I will have to remind my students is to make your alien relevant to your planet. I like the mars alien having red skin, a student might say an alien on mercury might have extra think skin to protect it from the ultra violet rays and heat. Aliens on the Jovial planet might have wings because those planets are primarily made up of gas. The art aspect makes it really fun and allows the students to be creative too. I can't wait to get started.

The Invent an Alien activity sounds like a fun activity to do with my 4th graders. I’m sure my students will really enjoy creating their aliens but I think they may have trouble connecting their aliens with actual facts about the planets they are researching. I think if I give them a few examples, like the one Flavio included in his post, they will have a better understanding of the learning objectives. I would love to see some student work! I wonder if there is a way we can post pictures? From Flavio’s post: For example, a student might say, "my alien from Mars is red because of the iron on the surface of the planet", or, "my alien from Jupiter is short due to the strong pull of gravity that the planet exerts on objects within its atmosphere." Thanks for sharing! Dawn

I am going to adapt this for use with my Jr. GEMS club--the girls would really get into this I think.