Educator Guide: Forest Neutrino Detectors and 3D Vertebrate Anatomy

About this guide

Have students explore an archive of 3D scans of vertebrate anatomy and form a scientific question and learn how scientists could use trees to help detect high-energy neutrinos using these lesson plans paired to articles from the April 6 issue of Science News.

This Guide Includes:

Neutrino-detection issues? Time to tree-cruit!

Physicists propose that trees may help detect high-energy subatomic particles called neutrinos. Learn how Earth’s atmosphere alters these incoming high-energy subatomic particles from space. Then, explore how scientists could use this interplay to develop new ways to detect high-energy neutrinos.

A peek inside

Students will learn about the openVertebrate project and how it is digitizing vertebrate anatomy using CT scans. Then they’ll explore the archive, form a scientific question about one of the specimens and consider how to research that question.