by Edna DeVore - Deputy CEO
The highest lake in the world hides near the summit of a dormant volcano, a small icy pool in a sleeping giant towering nearly 20,000 feet above Chiles Atacama Desert. The volcanos name is Licancabur, and its largely unexplored lake poses many questions that are directly relevant to space exploration and astrobiology.
Scientists travel to harsh environments like Licancabur to study "extremophiles," organisms that thrive under conditions inhospitable to life that we humans normally encounter in our daily lives. Understanding the geology and living systems of extreme places on Earth increases our understanding of what life may be like off Earth.
What kind of organisms thrive in the low-oxygen, high-UV radiation environment? Why does the water temperature at the lakes bottom stay liquid year-round when most of the year the surface is frozen? Such questions keenly interest scientists and science educators alike, and the exotic, dramatic location of the Licancabur exploration offers tremendous teaching opportunities.
Next month, science students can take a virtual field trip with planetary geologist Nathalie Cabrol, of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, Brian Grigsby, mentor educator for project ARISE (Advanced Rural Integrated Science Education), and Director of the Schreder Planetarium, and a team of scientists who study life in extreme environments. A unique partnership coordinated by the SETI Institute will make it possible for participating teachers to offer curriculum based upon the expedition, and for their students to peek over the shoulders of the six-member ascent team at work in the field.
With grant support from NASAs IDEAS (Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science) project, funding from Project ARISE, Shasta County [California] Office of Education and other local partners, Grigsby will launch a web site that allows teachers to register their classes on-line for a virtual field trips to Licancabur.
Upon registration, classes will have access to biographical sketches of the expedition team, journal updates from the scientists in the field, and daily-uploaded photographs of the experiments and the activities. Students will also be able to e-mail their questions to the scientists in the field via the website.
"Imagine a dialogue between a student in California and a scientist who has just collected samples of sediment from the Chilean lake. The immediacy and authenticity of an e-mail exchange like this makes science relevant and exciting for young people -- some of whom may never have traveled outside of Shasta County or Oakland!" says Grigsby.
While virtual field trips are not new, most such projects deploy television crews to bring a science project into the classroom. Cabrol and the Institute realized that basic Internet technology can allow students to see research as it happens at Lincacabur and communicate with the science team; the only necessary ingredients are a dedicated web site with curriculum, and the infrastructure to run the virtual field trips and teacher training.
Enter Brian Grigsby, Project ARISE, the SETI Institute, San Jose State Universitys Ellen Metzger and BAESI (Bay Area Earth Science Institute at San Jose State University which provides on-going professional development for earth science teachers).
Cabrols own outreach efforts have taken her into numerous classrooms where she has shared her passion for exploration with young people. Grigsby hosted a school talk by Cabrol and learned that the Institute was seeking a partner to implement the electronic field trip program. He responded by securing funding for his travel from the Project ARISE and the Shasta County Office of Education to supplement the IDEAS grant for the virtual fields trip.
When the web site goes live on September 24, the public will also have access to most of the features available to schools and students. While the interactive components are only available to registrants, anyone with an Internet connection can see science as it happens in Licancabur by visiting www.extremeenvironment.com. Teachers are invited to register at the same site.
The Licancabur virtual field trips will commence October 16.
Licancabur, says Cabrol, is a sacred place. The Inca had a village at the foot of the mountain and they would use this mountain for communicating between two other mountains with fire. Once more, like the Incas, we will be using the mountain to communicate, and seek answers to the question of life, but not with fire.
While Cabrol has amassed a collection of photographs from a reconnaissance trip earlier this summer, she is reluctant to share the images at this time "I want people to discover the place," she explains. All those who wish to discover the place for themselves are invited to visit the project website when it goes live next week.
In the meantime, Cabrol leaves us with this stirring description from her journal, "Licancabur and the mountains around it are truly stepping stones to the stars."