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Some plants have evolved to produce putrid scents. Consider the phenomenon of smell before doing a card sort to show the biological and chemical processes happening in these plants. Then, answer questions about why and how the plants evolved to increase their stench.

Based on recent research, Spinosaurus is depicted swimming in the newest Jurassic World movie. Some studies point to Spinosaurus’s relatively dense bones, which could have helped control buoyancy for swimming. But others argue that Spinosaurus fossils point to its life as a wader.

Shortages and big price tags have driven patients to unconventional, sometimes shady sources of weight-loss drugs. In some cases, people end up with tainted drugs or risk overdosing.

Predation occurs when one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. In this lesson, students will learn about the recently discovered chemical predation tactics of the feather-legged lace weaver spider, which vomits toxins on its prey. Students will explore the possible evolutionary advantages and disadvantages of this technique and research another organism that uses chemical means for predation.

T. rex or Velociraptor — who would win in a race? Scientists of the 1970s developed a set of equations that led modern scientists to predict speed of dinosaurs. But how well do those equations predict real life? Learn how a tidy math equation can sometimes oversimplify complex issues. Answer questions about how missing variables might lead to flawed conclusions and discuss challenges from inferring the behavior and characteristics of long-extinct species from available evidence.

The sympathetic nervous system — our fight-or-flight response — kicks in when we face a big challenge or risk. When we’re relaxed, our parasympathetic nervous system takes over. Together these two systems make up the autonomic nervous system.

Fossil research has been plagued by parachute paleontology. This happens when scientists from high-income countries travel to low-income countries to study or collect fossils but don’t involve local experts. Sometimes foreign scientists skirt local laws about exporting fossils or buy them under sketchy or even illegal circumstances.

Virtual reality (VR) has expanded people's ability to experience visual and auditory sensations in virtual worlds. What about our other senses? Learn how chemical-detection capabilities of the tongue allow us to taste cake as being sweet and lemonade as being sour. Explore how scientists used this understanding to develop taste-mimicking VR technology, all while answering questions about how this tasty research might one day help people.

By studying fossils, scientists have nailed down the evolutionary connection between birds and dinosaurs. Students will consider how changes to the way some species are now classified highlight the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs. This guide also will discuss evidence for this relationship using an example fossil.

Alcohol-related deaths have increased yearly over the last 20 years. From 2019 to 2020, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the death rate from alcohol use rose sharply — at a much greater rate than in recent years.

Have students explore ecological relationships among organisms through a case study on a newly identified fungus named after biologist Sir David Attenborough that zombifies spiders — taking over their bodies before killing them. Students will compare and contrast commensalism, mutualism, parasitism and predation and then use the definitions to identify examples.

Scientists have had a rough draft of the human genome for some 20 years. They hoped to use it for precision medicine, treatments based on an individual’s DNA. But an understanding of the differences between different people’s DNA has been hampered by a lack of diversity in genetic studies known as genome-wide association studies.