Earth and Space Sciences
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
Seeing into the moon
Students will answer questions about the Science News article “Rover peers beneath moon’s farside,” which details new geologic evidence that could help scientists understand why the lunar nearside and farside look so different.
- Planetary Science
Dissecting diagrams
Students will explore the value of diagrams, what information they should include and how to draw them. This discussion can be used with any science- or engineering-related article that contains a diagram.
- Earth
Geologist for a day
Rocks found across the world offer clues to geological processes, as well as the history of Earth and the rest of the solar system. In this activity, students will review types of rocks and the rock cycle and will apply that knowledge to interpret data on two rock samples.
- Science & Society
Ten top science stories from 2019
Students will answer questions about one of Science News’ Top 10 stories of 2019.
- Planetary Science
Lunar orbit
Students will practice analyzing and graphing data about the moon’s orbit. The activity will help students understand the Earth-moon system and the nature of elliptical orbits.
- Life
Growing up mammal
Students will answer questions based on the Science News article “Here come the (bigger) mammals.”
- Life
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.
- Life
Stories in rock
In this activity, students will research important fossil sites across the world and synthesize what they find into a story to present to the class.
- Chemistry
How are elements created?
Students will explore how elements are created — in nature and in the lab — while focusing on the concepts of atomic structure, stability and stellar evolution.
- Astronomy
Stellar smashup creates elements
Students will answer questions based on the Science News article “Strontium found in neutron star crash.”
- Earth
Unbalancing the carbon cycle
This activity covers where carbon is stored in the Earth, how carbon moves through Earth’s various spheres and how humans are impacting that carbon flow.
- Science & Society
A Nobel timeline in tweets
Students will track the scientific progress associated with a discovery or advance that was awarded a Nobel Prize by creating a timeline of key events and players.
