Upper-intermediate speaking
Aliens
Discuss life beyond Earth, compare science-fiction worlds and examine the evidence.
1 · Discuss
What might be out there?
Work through the questions, explain your reasons and compare your ideas.
Round 1 · Start with the pictures
- Look at the following 3 slides. What films and information can you see in the slides. Use the pictures to help answering the following questions.
Round 2 · Beliefs and experiences
- Do you believe there is other life in the universe? How about intelligent life?
- What do you think aliens / extraterrestrial life might look like?
- Do you think aliens have ever visited earth?
- What does UFO mean?
- Have you seen a UFO or do you know someone who has seen a UFO?
- What is your favorite alien from a movie?
Round 3 · Imagine and explore
- What is the scariest alien movie?
- If aliens did come to a country and met with the government of that country, what do you think would happen?
- Why are humans so fascinated by aliens?
- How many planets do you think are in our galaxy? How about the universe?
- Do you think humans will travel to another planet in your lifetime?
- How do you think we or aliens will get to other star systems like our own? (If we traveled at the speed of light, the nearest star with planets that we know of is 10.5 years away.)
2 · Movies
Aliens on screen
- Which of these movies have you seen?
- Are there any other films with aliens?
- In general, what kind of aliens appear in films?
3 · Worlds
Other planets
- What do you think these planets are?
4 · Evidence
What can we observe?
- What can you see in the pictures?
- This image was released by the Pentagon, US military. What do you think it is?
5 · Go deeper
Life, distance and the great silence
Use these short explanations to support the bigger space questions.
Life changed slowly
For most of Earth’s history, life was microscopic. Complex animals appeared much later, and humans occupy only a tiny part of the timeline.
If evolution took billions of years on Earth, what might life on another world look like?
How many planets?
Our galaxy probably contains hundreds of billions of planets, and the observable universe contains an unimaginably larger number.
Does a huge number of planets make intelligent life more likely? Give reasons.
Where is everybody?
The Fermi paradox is the tension between the enormous number of possible worlds and the lack of clear evidence that an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation has contacted us.
What explanations can you imagine for the silence?
Could silence be a survival strategy?
The dark forest theory suggests that intelligent civilisations may stay quiet because revealing their location could be dangerous.
Should humans actively send messages into space, or listen quietly?
Beyond Earth
Do you think humans will travel to another planet in your lifetime? What about terraforming Mars?
How does life begin?
Can life appear spontaneously when the chemistry, temperature and environment are right? What evidence would convince you?