Educator Guides

This guide will help students understand how viruses in other animals can infect people, sometimes leading to epidemics or pandemics. In a group activity, students will imagine they are health officials developing action plans to prevent or stop an epidemic.

This guide asks students to explore research into concussions and draw on their own experiences to think about the various signs and symptoms of injury or disease. After testing various materials, students will develop designs for protective headgear.

This guide asks students to explore how scientists are combating cat allergies, apply problem-solving strategies to an allergen of their choice, review basic concepts in genetics and analyze Punnett squares.

This guide, based on the Science News article “Coating provides infrared camouflage,” asks students to explore the physics and potential technological applications of a material, discuss the various types of electromagnetic radiation, analyze infrared images and research how infrared imaging is used across a range of fields.

This guide, based on the Science News article “Saving Notre Dame’s sound,” asks students to explore how scientists resurrect the acoustics of historic places, consider factors that affect how sound behaves to design a room with specific sound requirements, and measure and compare how sound changes in different environments.

This guide, based on the biggest science stories of 2019 as reported by Science News, asks students to read and dissect a story of their choice and practice their summarizing skills. An activity from the Digital Library asks students to analyze and graph data about the moon’s orbit.

This guide, based on the Science News article “Here come the (bigger) mammals,” asks students to analyze a graph about a recent fossil find, discuss how organisms evolve as ecosystems change and research important fossil sites across the world.

This guide, based on the Science News article “Strontium found in neutron star crash,” asks students to explore how elements are created. An activity from the Digital Library will help students understand the life cycle of stars and how stars produce various elements.

This guide, based on Science News’ article “Nobel prize winners announced,” asks students to summarize the discoveries that won the prizes, create a timeline that puts one prize in context and explore activities related to batteries from our Digital Library.

This guide, based on the Science News special issue “The SN 10: Scientists to watch,” asks students to explore the work of early- and mid-career researchers who are tackling some of science’s biggest questions.

This guide, based on the Science News article “Computer chip milestone reached,” asks students to explore transistors and Moore’s Law. The activity leads students as they design a simple circuit out of logic gates.

This guide, based on the Science News article “Climate change may raise the risk of deadly fungal infections in humans. One species is already a threat,” asks students to use the claims, evidence, reasoning model to evaluate a scientific viewpoint and then simulate and analyze the spread of an infection.