Everyday Experiments

The human story

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12/6/21 Thank you for subscribing to The Cheat Sheet, from Science News for Students. If you like this newsletter, share it with a friend or colleague. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up for our weekly updates. Got questions, suggestions or comments? Email us at sns@sciencenews.org and put “The Cheat Sheet” in the subject line. We’d love to hear from you. Inside Science News for Students The latest installment in our Scientists Say series is all about the word “experiment.” In this short explainer, we run through the basic outline of a scientific experiment and how scientists use experiments to explore the world. But perhaps the best way for students to learn about experiments is to do one for themselves. Looking for ideas? We’ve got plenty in Science News for Students’ Experiments collection. This series includes experiments that investigate everyday questions, such as how well tissues catch snot, or whether the five-second rule is really true. You’ll also find stories about how baking soda volcanoes and other fun demonstrations can be transformed into experiments that test hypotheses. For each experiment, we explain every step of the scientific method, from making a hypothesis to plotting data to performing statistical analyses — and even incorporating corrections from fellow scientists to fix errors.  These stories don’t just provide hands-on lessons about how experiments work. They show that science is all around us, and that anyone can do research.   Catch up with the latest from Science News for Students The ultimate genealogical search hunts for our earliest ancestors: The complex search to identify humans’ most distant cousins is long, complex and far from straightforward. It’s also far from over. Readability: 8.3 Resources: power words , classroom questions, word find puzzle, alternate version at Science News Want to improve your reading skills? You might just need more space: A simple change by publishers and Web designers could help kids — both with and without dyslexia — read faster and better. Readability: 7.8 Resources: power words, classroom questions Fossils point to earliest dinosaurs that lived in herds: A fossilized family gathering of long-necked Mussaurus from 193 million years ago is the earliest evidence yet of herd behavior in dinos. Readability: 7.6 Resources: power words, alternate version at Science News Discriminatory policing takes a toll on teens and tweens: Black teens and tweens are several times more likely than white adolescents their age to be harmed by police. Readability: 7.9 Resources: power words, classroom questions Baleen whales eat — and poop — a lot more than we thought: The amount of food that some whales eat and then poop out suggests these animals have a powerful influence over ocean ecosystems. Readability: 6.8 Resources: power words, alternate version at Science News Genetics show humans likely trace back to Africa: Our history began looking ever more complex once geneticists revealed our ancestors picked up new DNA as they traveled across time and continents. Readability: 8.5 Resources: power words, alternate version at Science News Explainer: The age of dinosaurs: Take a trip back to the Mesozoic Era to explore how geologic events, ecosystems and evolution were connected during the so-called age of dinosaurs. Readability: 8.6 Resources: power words, video Scientists Say: Avalanche: The word avalanche usually refers to a huge snowslide down a mountain, but it can also be used to describe any large mass of material tumbling downhill. Readability: 7.4 Resources: power words, audio recording Opportunity  Mathematics is all around us. The American Mathematical Society’s Mathematical Moments posters showcase some of math’s contributions to science, technology and culture. The AMS offers more than 150 free posters, in multiple languages, on the roles that math plays in genetics, music, black holes and more. Find out more about the resources available for using Science News for Students stories for learning. And if you like this newsletter, please share it with a friend or colleague. Did someone share this with you? Subscribe to this newsletter here. If you’ve got questions, suggestions or comments, email us at sns@sciencenews.org. Thank you for reading! Privacy policy  |  Update Profile  | Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe This email was sent by: Society for Science 1719 N Street NW Washington, DC, 20036, US