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How can comic strips help teach experimental design of research studies? Use this lesson plan to learn about an article type called Wild Things that is published by Science News Explores in print and online. Wild Things use comic strips that tell the stories of research studies on animals’ biology and behavior. You can also access a lesson plan template that can be used with any Wild Things article.

Use this lesson plan and the provided template to have your students practice the 3-2-1 strategy. This literacy strategy is a quick way to check students’ understanding of a concept, reading or lesson. It helps them summarize and organize their thoughts by listing three responses to one prompt, two responses to another prompt and one response to a final prompt.

Use this lesson plan to learn about an article type called Technically Fiction that is published by Science News Explores in print and online. Technically Fiction articles focus on a fictional phenomenon and explain whether it could be possible and the science it would take to make it a reality. You can also access a lesson plan template that can be used with any Technically Fiction article.

Use this lesson plan and the provided template to have your students practice creating concept maps for any article. This literacy strategy boosts critical thinking and reading retention by having students organize information and connect important ideas, concepts and terms.

Use this lesson plan to learn about an article type called Explainers that is published by Science News Explores in print and online. You can also access a lesson plan template that can be used with any Explainer article. Explainer articles take a deep dive into a key scientific concept or process.

Use this lesson plan and the provided template to have your students practice the Cornell Note-taking System with any article. This literacy strategy organizes notes into two columns that provide structure for note-taking, analysis and review and that will help increase students’ learning, comprehension and retention.

As global temperatures increase we’ll need to change how we design our buildings. Climate responsive architecture includes buildings that are designed with the regional climate in mind. In this activity, students will design a building that stays at a safe and comfortable temperature throughout the day. In their designs, students will have to consider the Sun’s movement in the sky and their buildings’ materials and shapes. Students will model and test their designs before learning about a new idea scientists have for climate responsive architecture.

Students will research how knowledge of the atom has changed over time, visually represent a historic atomic model and present that model to the class. Students can also explore the standard model of particle physics and discuss ways it could be depicted.

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.

This guide explores a variety of sugars and how they are modified in the body -- as well as how scientists follow those modifications.

These discussion prompts ask students about how isotopes can be used to label and track chemical molecules, and about sugars and the enzymes they interact with.

Students will simulate the exponential radioactive decay and half-life of carbon-14 with pennies and a food coloring/bleach chemical reaction.