Cosmos Episode 13 Viewing Worksheet

As a teacher, I am always on the lookout for great science videos to show my classes. I use these either as a supplement to help enhance a topic we are learning or sometimes as a reward for the students on a "movie day". They also come in handy when I have to plan for a substitute teacher to take over my classes for a day. It isn't always easy to find something relevant, educational, and entertaining. Thankfully, Fox brought back the "Cosmos" series and updated it using the awesome Neil deGrasse Tyson as host. I now have a whole series of outstanding science shows to show the students.

However, I need to make sure the students understand and absorb the material. Below is a set of questions for Cosmos Episode 13, entitled "Unafraid of the Dark", that can be copy and pasted (and then tweaked as necessary) into a worksheet. It can be used as a note taking guide while watching the show, or afterward as a type of quiz or informal assessment. 

Cosmos Worksheet Sample 

Cosmos Episode 13 Worksheet                         Name:______________ 

Directions: Answer the questions as you watch episode 13 of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey 

1. Who is the city of Alexandria in Egypt named after?

2. Why were all ships that landed in the port at Alexandria searched?

3. What are 2 things Neil deGrasse Tyson says that the librarian Eratosthenes did during his lifetime?

4. How many scrolls were estimated to be kept in the library at Alexandria? 

5. What three continents were on the very first globe? 

6. What did Victor Hess discover was in the air when he did his series of experiments in his hot air balloon? 

7. How did Victor Hess determine radiation in the air was not coming from the Sun? 

8. Where did the cosmic rays really come from?

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9. Who does Neil deGrasse Tyson call “the most brilliant man you’ve never heard of”? 

10. What is a supernova? 

11. What were the “shrunken stars” called? 

12. What does Neil deGrasse Tyson say is what he loves most about science?

13. What did Fritz Zwicky find odd about the Coma Cluster of galaxies?

14. Why does Mercury travel much faster than Neptune?

15. What unusual thing did Vera Rubin discover about the Andromeda Galaxy?

16. Why can you not tell how close a supernova is based on its brightness alone?

17. What are the kinds of supernovas that have a constant brightness called? 

18. What did astronomers discover about the universe in 1998?

19. What year were Voyagers I and II launched?

20. What is Jupiter’s red spot? 

21. Which of Jupiter’s moons has more water (trapped under ice) than Earth? 

22. How fast are the winds on Neptune?

23. What is shot out of the geysers on Neptune’s moon Titan? 

24. What happens to the heliosphere when the solar wind calms down?

25. When was the last time the heliosphere collapsed all the way back to the Earth?

26. How did scientists determine the age of the iron left on the Earth’s ocean floor by a supernova?

27. What does Neil deGrasse Tyson call the “common unit of time” that is indicated on the Voyagers I and II that will be used to communicate with extraterrestrials?

28. What are three things included on the record put on Voyagers I and II? 

29. What supercontinent made up all the land on Earth a billion years ago? 

30. What planet did Neil deGrasse Tyson say the Earth probably looked like a billion years ago? 

31. What would the colonial organisms in the world ocean soon evolve into on Earth a billion years ago?

32. How many orbits around the center of our galaxy will the Sun have made one billion years in the future?

33. What does Carl Sagan call the Earth when it is viewed from space?

34. What are the 5 simple rules that Neil deGrasse Tyson says all great researchers take to heart?

35. How has science been misused?