How microbes in Iceland can teach us about possible life on Mars

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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 clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Biology, Chemistry 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 Solange Duhamel, an oceanographer, and Dr Christopher Hamilton, a planetary scientist, who have explored microbial life in Iceland’s hydrothermal systems to investigate how life could survive on Mars.
• This resource also contains an interview with Dr Duhamel and Dr Hamilton. If you or your students have a question for them, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. Dr Duhamel or Dr Hamilton will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on the research and provides a wealth of links to enable students to find out more.

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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