Found 19 resources for the concept:
Scientific knowledge is open to question and revision as new ideas surface and new evidence is discovered.
50,000 years of Los Angeles summers?
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This Science Short illustrates the revision of scientific ideas in the context of research about fossil insects. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
A science prototype: Rutherford and the atom
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Physical Sciences
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Have your students read the full article on Rutherford's investigations of the atom and compare it to the Science Checklist in order to explore the key traits that make science science. Get more tips on using Science Stories in class.
Asteroids and dinosaurs: Unexpected twists and an unfinished story
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 2 class periods
Overview
This story uses the Science Flowchart to map Walter Alvarez's scientific journey as he investigates an intriguing hypothesis about the extinction of the non-Avian dinosaurs. Get tips for using science stories in class.
Discovering a strange new group of ancient sea creatures
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
This Science Short illustrates how fossils have reshaped our understanding of the diverse forms life can take. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Endosymbiosis: Cells within cells
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: one period
Overview
This Science Story on endosymbiosis explores the career of microbiologist Lynn Margulis and how an unlikely idea overcame strong resistance within the scientific community and finally came to be an accepted part of evolutionary theory. Get tips for using science stories in class.
High altitude adaptations: The work of Emilia Huerta-Sánchez
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- research profile
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 1 hour
Overview
This research profile tells the story of Emilia Huerta-Sánchez and how she uses mathematical modeling to answer evolutionary questions. Students examine data visualizations and learn about the process of science while focusing on adaptations, allele frequencies, and natural selection. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
How science works
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- California Academy of Sciences
Resource type:
- Science Story
- video
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
This Science in Action video uses the Understanding Science Flowchart to follow arachnologist Charles Griswold and colleagues as they describe the process involved in an exciting new spider discovery.
Introducing the Understanding Science flowchart
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 90 minutes
Overview
Students participate in a quick activity and discuss whether they were doing science. They then read a story about Walter Alvarez, discuss the process of science, and trace his scientific journey using the Science Flowchart.
Luminous
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Sam Smartt
Resource type:
- classroom activity
- Science Story
- video
Discipline:
- Space science
Time: 2-8 hours
Overview
The film LUMINOUS (now freely available through many libraries and the Kanopy platform) tells the story of astronomer Larry Molnar as he investigates a distant, double-star system, about which he makes a daring and explosive prediction. Interviews with Dr. Molnar’s diverse set of colleagues, collaborators, and skeptics highlight science as a community and intensely human endeavor, debunking the myth of the lone scientist conducting dispassionate research. The Luminous Science Education Toolkit provides classroom activities to support students' interpretation of the film.
Mystery tubes
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- ENSI
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- General
Time: One class period
Overview
Students are asked to determine what the interior construction of the mystery tube looks like. Working in groups, students pose explanations for what they are observing and test their ideas.
Number patterns
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- General
Time: 15-20 minutes
Overview
Students try to discover the relationship among six numbers. The objective of this activity is to engage students in a problem-solving situation in which they practice aspects of the process of science.
Ozone depletion: Uncovering the hidden hazard of hairspray
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Physical Sciences
Time: 2 hours
Overview
Follow a group of scientists from around the world as they work together to understand - and then help fix - a problem that threatens the future of the planet: a hole in the ozone layer. Get tips for using science stories in class.
The great fossil find
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- ENSI
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: one class period
Overview
Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt and form hypotheses about the identity of the creature they discover. Students revise their hypotheses as new evidence is found.
The Hobbit: When scientists disagree about the evidence
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Visionlearning
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: One class period
Overview
This classroom activity, adapted from an exercise on PBS's NOVA website, provides an excellent example of an active debate within the scientific community regarding a relatively recent human fossil find, Homo floresiensis.
The science checklist applied: Solving DNA’s double helix
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Have your students read about the investigation of DNA's double helix and compare it to the Science Checklist in order to explore the key traits that make science science. Get more tips on using Science Stories in class.
The science checklist applied: Studying variable stars
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Space science
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Students can use this reading, along with the Science Checklist, to investigate the features that make science science while learning about an early female astronomer. Get tips for using science stories in class.
The story behind the science
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Iowa State University
Resource type:
- article
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
- Physical Sciences
- Space science
Time: Variable
Overview
Thirty stories spanning five disciplines help students explore key science concepts through the eyes of the scientists who were involved, while emphasizing the nature and process of science.
The structure of DNA: Cooperation and competition
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 2-3 periods
Overview
This Science Story examines how evidence and ideas from different research groups contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Get tips for using science stories in class.
This is not the shrimp you’re looking for
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This Science Short illustrates how paleontologists have reinterpreted fossil evidence to gain new understanding of life in the Cambrian seas. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.