What if microbes could live in extreme environments beyond Earth?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM/space/biology clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Biology and Physics.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Jay Nadeau from Portland State University, USA. Jay is a physicist and is using her skills to study microbes in extreme environments on Earth, including sea ice in Greenland, pools in Death Valley and Ash Meadows in the California desert, mineral springs in The Cedars in the California mountains, and permafrost in Alaska. Her findings could help scientists find life in space.

• This resource also contains an interview with Jay about her career path. If your students (or you) have questions for Jay, you/they can send them to the researcher online. All you need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Jay will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Jay’s research and challenges them to think about the impact of findng life in extreme environments.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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