"Science and engineering improve our understanding of the world by using evidence to design better tools and by changing ideas when new clues appear."
Ask the class before watching:
"If you could send one tool into space or back in time to help you learn something, what would you choose, and what evidence would you hope it brings back?"
A processor is the part of a computer that does the thinking and tells the machine what to do.
If a rover had a faster processor, it could choose the best rock to photograph without waiting for mission control.
Radiation is invisible energy that can travel through space and sometimes mess with electronics.
Engineers build space computers to handle radiation so the spacecraft doesn’t get confused by space’s invisible zaps.
Microfossils are tiny fossils of living things that are so small you often need a microscope to see them.
Scientists studied microfossils like clues in a mystery to figure out what kinds of tiny life lived in Earth’s ancient oceans.
An archive is a carefully organized collection of important old items kept so people can study them later.
The museum’s photo archive is like a time machine shelf, saving thousands of moments from different years.
Have students answer these questions after watching the episode.