Block 10: NASA Committee Q&A + Unit Reflection
Image of the latest JWST exoplanet atmosphere spectrum (CO₂, water vapor, methane absorption lines).
Task: What habitability questions could this kind of data finally answer? What could it never answer?
Projected in sequence: (a) the WASP-96 b transmission spectrum (JWST first images, 2022), water-vapor features labeled; then (b) the TRAPPIST-1 e NIRSpec spectrum (Sept 2025), ambiguous by design.
Answer in your Field Notebook, dated.
I can defend my framework classifications under sustained questioning and revise my position when given strong counter-evidence.
I choose when to use AI and when to think it through myself, and I can defend either choice.
In brief: "Decide whether AI is the right tool for a task before using it (paraphrased)"
Where this runs:
- U0 B3: AI as a Source + Documentation Protocol
- U0 B5: Source Dossier Work Day 2: AI Source + Documentation
- U0 B7: Defenses + Unit Close
- U1 B8: Goldilocks Report Drafting: Substantive Writing Block
- U1 B10: NASA Committee Q&A + Unit Reflection ← you are here
- U2 B8: Landscape Reading Drafting + Peer Feedback
- U4 B10: Climate Brief Work Day + Worked-Example Brief + Peer Feedback
- U4 B11: Climate Brief Final Drafting + Panel Rehearsal
Assessed:
AI-use log across the year; the defended not-using-AI reflection
On track looks like:
You can name a step where you chose NOT to use AI, and your reason survives a 'why?'
What today is about
Ten blocks ago: four unlabeled planets and a list of guesses. Today: a verdict, defended.
The unit's anchor question was is Earth special, or is it one of many habitable planets we just haven't found yet? You don't answer that in the abstract; you answer it through your chosen exoplanet, your framework, and your willingness to defend a verdict when classmates push back. Today is the day your work meets an audience.
The Stakeholder Q&A format matters. Peers play a NASA evaluation committee with limited deep-observation time available. Each verdict is a recommendation for where to point the next observation. Sometimes the strongest verdict isn't the most enthusiastic one; it's the one that names its uncertainty honestly and tells the committee exactly what data would change its mind. This is the same format you'll use in every later summative: U3 Engineering Defense, U4 Climate Brief panel, U5 Stakeholder Roundtable, U6 Planning Board, U7 Public Op-Ed.
After the Q&A, we close the unit. One reflection circle. One look back at the "I used to think life needed ___" sentence from Block 1. Then a five-minute look forward: Unit 2 (Surface Processes) takes the geosphere subsystem you sketched in Block 2 and goes deep.
Before you start the work
Keep these open. Today is defense day, so use them as references during the Q and A rather than as new content.
Today's work: the structured 80 minutes
Not a choice: every student goes through every phase. The whole class is the NASA Evaluation Committee.
Factstorm before the panels (four minutes, groups): every habitability criterion this class's frameworks used. From memory, no notes. Harvest to the board. Then open your own framework and compare: if something is on the board but NOT in your framework, be ready to say why you left it out. That question is coming to the panel, and now you've rehearsed it.
Open your Class Notebook and type today's entry header as Heading 2:
A: Oct 13 | U1 B10 | NASA Committee Q&A + Unit ReflectionB: Oct 14 | U1 B10 | NASA Committee Q&A + Unit Reflection
What you're submitting today
The last four components of the Goldilocks Report lock today: final Report (C), pitch (C), Q&A responses (C), and unit-close reflection (formative). K/U + T/T are already locked from Blocks 7–9.
Your fully assembled Goldilocks Report in your chosen format (≤1500-word written / 6-min captioned video / annotated infographic), with all sections integrated and all sources cited. Ms. Jayanthi/Mr. Ignash gives feedback + assigns a C band on the final assembled artifact.
Your 3–4 min pitch defending your exoplanet's habitability verdict to the NASA committee. Live (captured by Ms. Jayanthi/Mr. Ignash) or pre-recorded video for alt-format students. C band assigned on the pitch.
Live responses to two-or-more peer questions across the six question categories. Substantive, specific, willing to name uncertainty. C band assigned on the responses.
Plus: during peers' Q&As, capture one sentence per classmate: strongest claim + one piece of evidence cited. Listening is part of communication. This is formative, alongside your systems diagrams and peer feedback.
Submit via Google Classroom (link posted in August)One question before you leave
Three to five minutes. Your answer is saved to your reflection journal, where you can read back everything you have written this year.
Bookends the Block 1 reflection. Pull up your "I used to think life needed ___" sentence from Block 1 alongside this one.
Today's reflection is in Google Classroom, under Reflection Journal.
Link posted in AugustSign in with your school account. Your teacher can see what you write here.