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In these lesson plans paired to the May issue of Science News Explores, students will learn how researchers used the scientific method to study a beloved landmark and will consider the science behind future pieces of technology and how they could be used to solve a problem or design an experiment.

The relationship between speed and size has long stumped scientists. A study that surveyed how speed tracks with body size found that the make-or-break factor was the time it takes animals to achieve their theoretical top speed.

Scientists and engineers are hard at work developing new technologies that will impact everyday life. Students will focus on one future piece of technology and consider the science behind it before brainstorming ways to use it to solve a problem or design an experiment.

Learn how researchers use the scientific method to study a beloved landmark — Chicago’s “Rat Hole.” Practice designing your own experiment and creating a hypothesis. Learn to draw conclusions from data, all while using your investigative spirit to study the nuances of this mysterious impression, then make your own observations.

Tiny floating plankton can accidentally eat sediment particles kicked up by deep sea mining. Plankton that munch these nutrient-poor particles could starve, which could lead to a starvation cascade affecting creatures at higher levels of ocean food webs.

Directions for teachers:Since UFOs entered the spotlight in United States in the late 1940s, they’ve come to be dismissed as a hoax or irrational obsession and thus unworthy of study by scientists. But government agencies and officials are trying to change that attitude so that more pilots or citizens will report unusual phenomena that may […]

Pair these lesson plans with articles from the April issue of Science News to have students discuss how flower art provides evidence that ancient people had an understanding of math and learn how paleontologists use fossilized “clues” to learn about ancient species’ interactions and ecosystems.

Students will describe what they can learn from different types of fossils, from bones to microfossils. Then they will learn about an example of fossilized vomit and answer questions about how paleontologists use fossilized “clues” to learn about ancient species’ interactions and ecosystems.

After taking a fresh look at humanity’s oldest flower art, researchers realize that math may have emerged thousands of years earlier than previous estimates. Discuss how our Stone Age ancestors depicted flowers with a regular number of petals and how this provides evidence of an understanding of math.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture unveiled an overhauled food pyramid on January 7. It differs drastically from decades of previous recommendations. To learn about the new guidelines’ strengths and weaknesses, Science News spoke with Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

In the United States, chronic pain affects tens of millions of people — about 1 in 5 adults. So researchers are on a quest to find new pain treatments that aren’t as addictive as opioids, a therapy that has fueled an epidemic that kills tens of thousands of people each year.

Explore long-running research experiments while reviewing the scientific method and learn how researchers used concepts of wavelength and the electromagnetic spectrum to solve the mystery of iridescent ammolite with these lesson plans paired to articles from the April issue of Science News Explores.