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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.

In this activity, students will explore long-running research experiments that outlive their scientists, highlighted in a Science News Explores article, while reviewing essential concepts of the scientific method. They will then think about which scientific phenomena lend themselves to longer-term explorations before brainstorming ideas that could lay the foundation for a class research project.

Scientists have long puzzled over the kaleidoscope of colors shining from ammolite, an iridescent gem that forms from the fossilized remains of ancient life. Learn how researchers use science to relate the microscopic structure of this material to its macroscopic appearance. Answer questions about the electromagnetic spectrum, relating the concept of wavelength to frequency. Finally, analyze and interpret graphs, and use what you’ve learned to create your own.

In this activity, students will share their prior knowledge about golf before reading the Science News article “There’s math behind this maddening golf mishap.” Students will then define key terms identified in the article before playing golf in person or digitally and observing how each property or force influences the ball’s movement. At the end of the activity, students will use their knowledge of physics and their observations to describe the “lip out” phenomenon.

Airlines often offer passengers the option to pay a few dollars for carbon credits that offset their share of the flight’s emissions. But those purchases might not be helping the climate because of problems with the voluntary carbon credit. Understanding how carbon credits work can help you decide what to do about your carbon footprint.

Using AI gobbles up an enormous amount of energy, and the power needs of data centers may already be helping to drive up electricity costs in some areas. So researchers are looking to compress AI models to a more manageable size, which would also allow them to run on devices instead of online in the cloud. One approach uses a mathematical structure called a tensor network.

In these lesson plans paired to articles from the March issue of Science News, students will compare the basics of asexual and sexual reproduction while learning the reproductive strategy of a newly invasive wasp species and will investigate the role that bark-dwelling microbes play in lessening concentrations of greenhouse gases.

In this lesson, students will compare asexual and sexual reproduction while analyzing the rate that offspring are created. Then, they’ll explore how the elm zigzag sawfly is spreading across North America, the threat this poses, why this case is different from other insect invasions and what concerned citizens can do.

In atmospheric chemistry, an equilibrium will develop as the system balances gains and losses in important molecules. Calculate the role of bark-dwelling microbes on the overall concentrations of atmospheric methane, all while answering questions about how a new understanding of microbial diets might suggest paths to a more sustainable future.

A group of single-celled microbes that belong to the domain of life known as archaea may have been crucial to the evolution of complex life. Members of this group, known as Asgard archaea, seem to have evolved in several ways that primed them to give rise to multicellular life. This suggests that complex life may evolve more easily than biologists have thought, but researchers are still working out how exactly it could have happened.

In these lesson plans paired to the March issue of Science News Explores, students will explore the cosmic timeline of the universe’s evolution era by era and analyze graphs tracking bats’ predatory behavior.