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In this guide, students will learn about outliers and why some social scientists study them in an effort to improve people’s lives.

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “Why do some people succeed when others fail? Outliers provide clues,” which describes how research into communities that defy expectations can reveal ways to help others.

Students will define what an outlier is and discuss why outliers occur, how to identify them and how they can be useful for science and society.

Students will design and build models inspired by flying seeds with the goal of making the models travel as far as possible. Students will test the models, analyze which ones performed the best and explain why those models performed well using physics principles.

In this guide, students will learn about the origin of organic material found inside a meteorite from Mars and discuss how new evidence can be used to reevaluate scientific claims.

Students will compare two Science News articles and analyze how new evidence has revised an initial claim and the reasoning behind that claim. As a bonus, students can answer chemistry questions about abiotic and biotic reactions.

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “Organic molecules in an ancient Mars meteorite formed via geology, not alien life,” which describes new research into the origin of organic material found in a space rock. A version of the article, “Meteorite’s organics aren’t signs of life,” appears in the February 12, 2022 issue of Science News.

Students will learn about early evidence for human evolution, discuss how interpretations of data can be influenced by scientists’ biases and develop a framework for analyzing the physical features of hominin fossils.

In this guide, students will learn about psychological tools that are helping elite athletes in competitions and everyday life, analyze data visualizations and discuss how the psychological tools might be applied to students' own lives.

Students will discuss the uses of data visualizations, analyze visualizations from a Science News article, and think about how psychological tools used by elite athletes might benefit their own lives.

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “How mindfulness-based training can give elite athletes a mental edge,” which explores new research into psychological tools to improve mental health. A version of the article, “Mental gymnastics,” appears in the January 29, 2022 issue of Science News.

In this guide, students will explore chemical interactions within wildfire smoke and how urban air pollution can influence the reactions.