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Students will use phase diagrams to explore how changes in temperature and pressure affect a substance’s phase of matter before applying the concepts to meteorology on Earth and the exoplanet WASP 76b.

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.

Students will explore the definitions of outbreak, epidemic and pandemic and research how an outbreak becomes an epidemic or pandemic.

Doctors often have to diagnose an injury or disease based on incomplete information. In this discussion, students will explore how symptoms and other biological information — including protein biomarkers in particular — can help doctors identify a problem and recommend a treatment.

Students will identify and categorize various approaches to fending off cat allergies. After discussing the approaches, students will apply similar problem-solving strategies to a new allergen.

Students will watch a NASA video about the electromagnetic spectrum to learn about properties of the various types of radiation. Then, students will explore and discuss technologies that use specific types of electromagnetic radiation.

Drawing on their experiences with how sound behaves in different spaces, students will explore the engineering process by designing and sketching a room to meet specific sound requirements.

Students will discuss what makes a good summary and practice their summarizing skills. After summarizing an article of their choice, students will share their summaries and get feedback from classmates. This exercise is based on Science News’ Top 10 stories of the year but can be used with any article.

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.

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.

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.

These discussion prompts encourage students to discuss and compare the work and background of two SN 10 scientists to explore the varied paths to becoming a successful researcher.