Michael first joined Michigan Astro in 2013 as a postdoc working with Eric Bell, developing assessments to measure instructional gains in introductory courses, especially ASTRO 101 & 102. He continued in this role, largely during summers, until 2017, when he became a Lecturer in the department, teaching those and other introductory courses, also working independently with a number of students from those courses in directed studies designed to introduce basics skills for research through analysis of data from the Kepler and Tess Missions. The studies resulted in multiple conference presentations and publications in IOP-Physics Education and TPT-The Physics Teacher, as well as a book for AAS /IOP Publishing - Student Exoplanet Projects Using Data from the Kepler Mission. He is currently finishing another book with Elsevier Publishing - Naked Eye Astronomy-Observing the Sky without a Telescope, based on teaching ASTRO 127 both in the planetarium and remotely. A recently completed series of five ASTRO-NOTES for The Physics Teacher about different strategies for teaching Life in the Universe, developed when teaching ASTRO 106 & 115, will be the main subject of this talk.

10 years of teaching Life in the Universe in ASTRO 106-Aliens, 115-Astrobiology, as well as 101, have resulted in the development of what have become useful strategies for covering several topics, including possible habitability in our own solar system and beyond, interstellar space travel, and the Fermi Paradox and Drake Equation, including examination of both through the lens of the Copernican and Anthropic Principles.