Cosmos Episode 11 Viewing Worksheet

 "It's movie day!"

Those are words almost all students like to hear when they enter their classrooms. Many times, these movie or video days are used as a reward for students. However, they can also be used to supplement a lesson or topic they are learning about in class. 

There are many great science-related movies and videos available for teachers, but one that is entertaining and has great and accessible explanations of science is the Fox series  ​Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Below is a set of questions that can be copy and pasted into a worksheet for students to fill out as they view Cosmos episode 11. It can also be used as a quiz after the video is shown. Feel free to copy and it and tweak it as necessary.

Cosmos Episode 11 Worksheet                          Name:______________

Directions: Answer the questions as you watch episode 11 of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey entitled, “The Immortals”.

1.  How does Neil deGrasse Tyson say our ancestors marked the passage of time?

2.  Where was civilization, including written language, born?

3.  Enheduanna is considered to be the first person to do what?

4.  What is the name of Enheduanna’s poem that an excerpt is read from?

5.  What is the name of the hero in the story of the great flood?

6.  How many years before the Bible was written was this account of the great flood?

7.  In what form does everyone carry the message of life in their bodies?

8.  What kind of molecules may have gotten together in the sunlit pools of water to form the first life?

9.  Where, underwater, could the first life have formed?

10.  How could the first life have “hitchhiked” to Earth?

11.  What was the name of the village near Alexandria, Egypt where the meteor hit in 1911?

12.  Where was the meteorite that hit Egypt originally from?

13.  How can meteorites be “interplanetary arks”?

14.  How could life on Earth have survived the large number of asteroid and meteor strikes early in its life history?

15.  How does Neil deGrasse Tyson say a dandelion is like an ark?

16.  How could life travel to very distant planets in outer space?

17.  What year did we first announce our presence to the galaxy?

18.  What was the name of the project that had radio waves bouncing off the Moon?

19.  How long does it take a radio wave sent from Earth to make it to the Moon’s surface?

20.  How many miles do Earth’s radio waves travel in one year?

21.  What year did we begin listening with radio telescopes for messages from life on other planets?

22.  Give one possible thing we could be doing wrong when listening for messages from life on other planets.

23.  What are two reasons Mesopotamia is now a wasteland instead of a thriving civilization?

24.  What did the people of Mesopotamia think caused the great drought in 2200 BC?

25.  What great civilization would be wiped out in Central America 3000 years later when another abrupt climate change happened?

26.  Where was the last supervolcano eruption and how long ago did it happen?

27.  What was the secret weapon the Europeans brought with them that helped defeat the American Natives?

28.  What is the main problem with our current economic systems from when they were made?

29.  What does Neil deGrasse Tyson say is a good measure of intelligence?

30.  What is the greatest hallmark of the human species?

31.  What state does Neil deGrasse Tyson compare giant elliptical galaxies to?

32.  When, on the new year of the Cosmic Calendar, does Neil deGrasse Tyson predict humans will learn to share our tiny planet?