Imagine living in a neighborhood where the houses on your street keep moving farther away until your house is the only one in the reachable vicinity. That's what is happening in our universe, except your house is our galaxy, and the neighborhood is the rest of the known universe. An intriguing video explains humans' place in the larger scope of existence, and details why, in the absolutely best-case scenario, we will only be able to explore one hundred billionth of a percent of the observable universe.

Concepts

the universe, the milky way galaxy, galaxies, black holes, outer space, space exploration, space travel, the big bang theory, gravitational force, gravity

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Show before beginning a unit on the Big Bang Theory
• Have class members write a narrative essay from the perspective of someone in the future Milkdromeda galaxy, reflecting on what they know of the universe based on the data available to them

Classroom Considerations

• Though the conclusion of the video's essential question can be a bit depressing, it does emphasize that these events will not happen for billions of years
• Complex concepts in the video may warrant extra explanation or details
• End of the video consists of an advertisement for the video's sponsor

Pros

• Provides a four-question comprehension assessment at the end of the video
• Addresses a variety of concepts from astronomy and physics, making the video interesting but not confusing

Cons

• None

Common Core

RST.9-10.2 RST.11-12.2