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What’s that smell?
Students will explore how our sense of smell helps us interpret the world around us, and how those interpretations may vary. Students will practice analyzing data and determine how temperature affects vapor pressure and thus the intensity of scents.
Do not disturb
Students will explore the immediate and long-term effects of specific environmental disturbances, including how energy enters or leaves an ecosystem, how the biotic and abiotic characteristics of the ecosystem change and how organisms evolve under the new conditions.
Many Moore transistors?
After watching a video about transistors, your class can use these discussion prompts to analyze transistor technology and predict future trends in computer processing.
Pushing computers to the limit
Students will answer questions based on the Science News article “Computer chip milestone reached.”
Atoms, ions and isotopes, oh why?
Students will use a PhET Interactive Simulation to understand the definitions, similarities and differences of elements, ions and isotopes. Then students will explore the Science News journalism archive to find current science research examples that apply these concepts.
Move into a hermit crab’s shell
These discussion prompts connect concepts including energy, competition, adaptation, speciation, natural selection and chemical and physical changes to a real-world example.
Surveying the hermit crab housing market
Students will answer questions based on the Science News article "Hermit crabs are drawn to the dead."
The Periodic Table: A nuclear view
Students will learn how interactions among the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus affect the properties and stability of chemical elements, and how these properties could inform the creation of future elements.
Journey to the center of the Earth
After thinking through concepts related to processes in the Earth's core, students will use these prompts to create a diagram of the geodynamo.
Assessing the age of Earth’s core
Students will answer questions based on the Science News article "Earth's inner core is relatively young."
Tracing tracks and guessing gaits
Students will use what they know about physics and human range of motion to analyze classmates’ trackways and infer how their classmates made the tracks.
Step into the shoes of a scientist studying ancient locomotion
These discussion prompts encourage students to apply their knowledge of experimental design.