Exploring Ice in the Solar System!
Curriculum
This course was originally authored as a product of NASA’s MESSENGER Mission to Mercury, managed by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and coincided with the International Polar Year, 2007-2009. To search for ice throughout the Solar System is to search for water as a source for the possibility of life. Astrobiology is the field of of investigating the possibility of life beyond Earth. But it is also to achieve greater appreciation for the resource of Ice and Water on Earth, especially as we are now witnessing the effects of global warming with the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic icecaps and the shrinking of mountainous glaciers. NASA originally distributed this curriculum as CDs for 50,000 teachers nationwide. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate also funded the first two years of the ArctiQuest Expeditions program, which then transferred to the World Space Foundation and has reached over 30,000 youth in the Greater Las Angeles area.