What would you choose to represent humanity to someone, or something, that had never encountered Earth? Ten students at Edge High School, a tuition-free public charter serving grades 9-12 in Tucson, are working on that question this year. They joined the Voyager and Golden Record Project, an opportunity offered through the University of Arizona’s Astrobiology Center.
What Is the Voyager Golden Record?
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in 1977 to explore the outer solar system. Each carried a gold-plated record of sounds and images that portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, a message for any spacefaring civilization that might find it.
Nearly 50 years later, the record raises questions that reach far beyond astronomy. How do you tell the story of an entire planet? Edge students work through these:
- What represents humanity?
- What would we add today that the 1977 team might have missed?
- How do you communicate with beings who share no language or culture with us?
- What could another civilization learn from only what we send?
What Edge Students Explore
Through the Voyager and Golden Record Project, Edge students collaborate with the University of Arizona’s Arizona Astrobiology Center, where researchers from across the university study the origins, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.
That field is astrobiology, an interdisciplinary science that asks how life began and whether it exists elsewhere. To decide what humanity might say to another civilization, Edge students draw on science, history, art, music, mathematics, culture, communication, and philosophy. They also practice seeing Earth from other perspectives, because choosing what represents us means deciding whose experiences count.
Why Edge Builds Partnerships Like This One
Edge’s self-paced, mastery-based model helps students earn the credits they need to graduate, with individualized support from teachers. We also believe high school should give students room to discover their interests and learn in ways that connect them with the world beyond school. A partnership with the University of Arizona makes experiences like this one possible.
What each student takes away will look different. One could be drawn to science and may find a starting point in astronomy, planetary science, engineering, or another STEM field. Another student drawn to art or writing may care most about wrestling with communication, culture, and what it means to be human.
Edge students already shape their own path, and this project pushes them to think about where they fit in a world and a universe far larger than a classroom.
About Edge High School
For 30 years, Edge has been serving Tucson youth with a tuition-free, Cognia-accredited, high school education. We provide an alternative to traditional education, meeting the diverse learning and life needs of our students with online distance learning, in-person and flexible morning or afternoon schedules at two conveniently located campuses. Our high-quality, passionate teachers are dedicated to individualized instruction in our small academic classes. Get to know Edge on Facebook, Youtube and Instagram. Be you. With us. At Edge.