Princeton University 2005-2006

Princeton Astrobiology Club (PABC) and GEOASTEEBCHM255

In 2005 after the teaching of GEOASTEEBCHM255-Life in the Universe-(a new course supported by Princeton University’s sophomore initiative fund and taught by Onstott, Dismuke, Turner, Stiefel and Landweber) students formed an astrobiology club.  This club with some 200 members organized field trips and talks.  In May of ’05 with support from the Dean and several departments the PABC held a “Human Flight Symposium” during which Sen. Harrison Schmitt (former Apollo astronaut) and two other shuttle astronauts gave lectures and participated with faculty (Onstott and others) in a public evening forum where the sustainable of human flight and the President’s initiative were debated. 

In 2005 GEOASTEEBCHM255-Life in the Universe took sophomores to Yellowstone National Park for a week to look at the interactions of microbiology and geology.  GEOASTEEBCHM255-Life in the Universe-has one more year of support from Princeton’s sophomore initiative before it will become part of the regular course curriculum.

Life in the Universe Ge/As/EBB 255

 Instructors: T.C. Onstott, Ed Turner, Laura Landweber, Chuck Dismukes and Ed Stiefel Teaching Assistants: A. Youdin, M. Davidson, K. Sigloch

 This course introduces students to a new field, Astrobiology, where scientists trained in biology, chemistry, astronomy and geology combine their skills to discover life's origins and to seek out extraterrestrial life.  Students will experience first hand the diverse techniques used to study extremophiles in hot springs during an excursion to Yellowstone National Park over fall break.  The course also covers the technologies being used to explore for life on Mars, Europa, Titan and extra-solar planets.

Overall we believe we accomplished the impossible in the first year of this course, which was to teach about life in the universe from the perspective of an astrophysicist/ astronomer, a molecular/evolutionary biologist, two bio/inorganic chemists, and a geologist/microbiologist.  Our goal for next semester is to make some minor adjustments in the field trip, to modify the course material by removing the less relevant content and to make it more digestible, change the assignments by adding exercises that relate to the assigned reading.  The course is now cross-listed in the Chemistry department.  The MER’s (Mars Exploration Rovers) will continue to roam and Cassini will have several more flybys of Titan next fall, a new 7-9 Earth mass planet has been discovered around a M star, so plenty of new observations will present themselves for discussion in fall ‘05.  We also plan to promote speakers invited by PABC in our classes, invite members of last years class who spent the summer doing NASA research interns to class and invite Prof. Chris Chyba, a world-renowned astrobiologist recently hired by Princeton University, to join our final discussion period.  If next semester’s students are as enthusiastic as was this semester’s, then we believe this course should become part of the undergraduate curriculum and perhaps with increased enrollment.  This could be accomplished by offering a two track version 255 and 255a where the latter satisfies the ST requirement by making the YNP trip mandatory.  We set the enrollment cap at 21 this year and this was reached in the first day of SCORE.  We let an additional 7 students enroll  ?under the assumption that some attrition will occur prior to the Yellowstone field trip.

 A proposal has been submitted for an AST/MAE course science/engineering on life detection on exoplanets and Mars.  This is part of a proposal to the undergraduate dean for a certificate in Astrobiology that is being submitted this semester – Onstott and colleagues have put together sample courses of study for 5 departments.

Indiana University, Spring 2005-2006

Geomicrobiology G690. Instructor: Lisa M. Pratt
Geomicrobiology is a new course which provides an introduction to environmental microbiology and astrobiology for graduate students and advanced undergraduates with interests ranging from biogeochemistry to extremophile adaptation to origins of life.  The first six week focus on textbook readings with supporting lectures on microbial phylogeny, growth, metabolism and genetic sequencing in order to build a conceptual framework and a technical vocabulary.  During the second six weeks, dialogue and debate are incorporated into lecture through discussion of recent journal articles.  The final two weeks of the semester are reserved for student presentations.  Students write a three-page executive summary on a topic selected in consultation with the instructor.  Each summary is supported by an annotated bibliography with a minimum of 20 journal references.  Each student presents a 20-minute oral summary of their term paper to the class.    

Thirteen students representing four different departments (Biology, Geological Sciences, Public and Environmental Affairs, Science Education) enrolled in the first offering of Geomicrobiology.  The course will be offered a second time in Spring 2006. 

University of Tennessee

Davis, K.L., November 2005. Concerns and Suggested Concessions for the Pursuit of Modern-Day Science. Advanced Sociological Analysis graduate seminar (Sociology 534). University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN