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Directions for teachers:Since UFOs entered the spotlight in United States in the late 1940s, they’ve come to be dismissed as a hoax or irrational obsession and thus unworthy of study by scientists. But government agencies and officials are trying to change that attitude so that more pilots or citizens will report unusual phenomena that may […]

Pair these lesson plans with articles from the April issue of Science News to have students discuss how flower art provides evidence that ancient people had an understanding of math and learn how paleontologists use fossilized “clues” to learn about ancient species’ interactions and ecosystems.

Students will describe what they can learn from different types of fossils, from bones to microfossils. Then they will learn about an example of fossilized vomit and answer questions about how paleontologists use fossilized “clues” to learn about ancient species’ interactions and ecosystems.

After taking a fresh look at humanity’s oldest flower art, researchers realize that math may have emerged thousands of years earlier than previous estimates. Discuss how our Stone Age ancestors depicted flowers with a regular number of petals and how this provides evidence of an understanding of math.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture unveiled an overhauled food pyramid on January 7. It differs drastically from decades of previous recommendations. To learn about the new guidelines’ strengths and weaknesses, Science News spoke with Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

In the United States, chronic pain affects tens of millions of people — about 1 in 5 adults. So researchers are on a quest to find new pain treatments that aren’t as addictive as opioids, a therapy that has fueled an epidemic that kills tens of thousands of people each year.

Explore long-running research experiments while reviewing the scientific method and learn how researchers used concepts of wavelength and the electromagnetic spectrum to solve the mystery of iridescent ammolite with these lesson plans paired to articles from the April issue of Science News Explores.

In this activity, students will explore long-running research experiments that outlive their scientists, highlighted in a Science News Explores article, while reviewing essential concepts of the scientific method. They will then think about which scientific phenomena lend themselves to longer-term explorations before brainstorming ideas that could lay the foundation for a class research project.

Scientists have long puzzled over the kaleidoscope of colors shining from ammolite, an iridescent gem that forms from the fossilized remains of ancient life. Learn how researchers use science to relate the microscopic structure of this material to its macroscopic appearance. Answer questions about the electromagnetic spectrum, relating the concept of wavelength to frequency. Finally, analyze and interpret graphs, and use what you’ve learned to create your own.

In this activity, students will share their prior knowledge about golf before reading the Science News article “There’s math behind this maddening golf mishap.” Students will then define key terms identified in the article before playing golf in person or digitally and observing how each property or force influences the ball’s movement. At the end of the activity, students will use their knowledge of physics and their observations to describe the “lip out” phenomenon.

Airlines often offer passengers the option to pay a few dollars for carbon credits that offset their share of the flight’s emissions. But those purchases might not be helping the climate because of problems with the voluntary carbon credit. Understanding how carbon credits work can help you decide what to do about your carbon footprint.

Using AI gobbles up an enormous amount of energy, and the power needs of data centers may already be helping to drive up electricity costs in some areas. So researchers are looking to compress AI models to a more manageable size, which would also allow them to run on devices instead of online in the cloud. One approach uses a mathematical structure called a tensor network.