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Shores Still Reeling from 2010 Oil Spill

Soil erosion happens naturally and through human actions. In this activity, students will explore how an oil spill changed Louisiana’s coastline, and they will look for examples of landscape features that were created by erosion and examples of human-caused erosion in their area.

Cascading effects of erosion

Students will discuss a disastrous event that led to erosion and use the event to contextualize the impact of erosion on humans and the ways humans increase and decrease erosion. Learning Outcomes: Determining examples of erosion and its positive and negative impacts on humans and analyzing an example of a human-induced ecosystem disruption and understanding how it caused erosion in the ecosystem over time.

Curbing Climate Change

The emissions of greenhouse gases through human activities are changing the world and making it warmer. But there are technologies and strategies that can reduce these emissions and slow climate change. In this activity, students will research methods of reducing carbon dioxide production and removing carbon from the atmosphere and present on their findings.

The Past, Present and Future of Spaceflight

Have you ever wondered how the people who get to fly in space are chosen? The path to becoming an astronaut has changed a lot over the years. In this activity, students will learn about the space travelers of the past and present — and consider a future where the diversity of astronauts better reflects the diversity of all of humankind. Students will use their creative writing skills to imagine this future.

Chemists Crack the Code to Ancient Roman Concrete

The ancient Romans built concrete structures that have stood for thousands of years. In this Guide, students will learn how scientists experimented to make Roman-style concrete — without causing explosions!

Write a scientific question based in history

In this quick activity, students will write a scientific question to learn more about a historical artifact. Learning Outcomes: Asking scientific questions

The Road to Net-Zero

Human activities pump a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and those emissions are driving climate change. In this guide, students will review greenhouse gases and their sources and learn about ways to reduce emissions.

How to make the future climate-friendly

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “It’s possible to reach net-zero carbon emissions. Here’s how,” which explores various solutions to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. A version of the article, “The road to net-zero,” appears in the January 28, 2023 issue of Science News.

The Metric System Has Gained New Prefixes

In this guide, students will learn about new measurement prefixes, work with those prefixes in metric conversions and create their own units of measure.

New prefixes for the metric system

Students will answer questions about a Science News article that explores new prefixes for the metric system. A version of the article, “The metric system gains new prefixes,” appears in the January 14, 2023 issue of Science News.

Human Population Hits a Milestone

The world population has reached 8 billion people, according to the United Nations. In this guide, students will learn about how the human population has grown over time and how it is projected to grow in the future, then analyze a graph of world population data. In a quick activity, students will think about how a growing human population might impact various industries and how changes at the national or international level might help those industries support a larger population.

Preparing for population growth

In this quick activity, students will brainstorm the effects of population growth on industries such as agriculture and medicine, then will work collaboratively to come up with changes at the national or international level that will help those industries support the growing population.