How to communicate with an alien?

Several messages have been designed in an attempt to describe our own civilisation and its place in the galaxy to an alien race. A message designed by Frank Drake and encoded in radio signals has been sent using the Arecibo telescope. Spacecraft set to leave the Solar System also carry pictorial messages in the form of a plaque (Pioneer) and a gold record, along with instructions for playback (Voyager).

• Team 1 will run a brief workshop introducing three of these messages to the class, giving students an opportunity to interpret them, and outlining the reasoning behind their design.
• Team 2 will play the role of an alien civilisation and present a message of its own, to be interpreted by the class.

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Resources:

A good starting point for information on these messages is the website: http://www.seti.org/seti/our_projects/interstellar_messages/overview/resource_guide.php