Found 16 resources for the concept:
Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable.
Ancient bones, modern problems: One scientist’s trash is another scientist’s data
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- research profile
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Learn how scientists reuse and upcycle their data, while following graduate student Maria Viteri as she investigates ancient and modern small mammal communities. Get tips for 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.
Bill Berry and the construction of geologic time
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 describes how index fossils can help us test hypotheses about long past events that we cannot directly observe. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Cold fusion: A case study for scientific behavior
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Time: 2 class periods
Overview
This Science Story uses the "discovery" of cold fusion in the late 1980s to illustrate the nature of scientific misconduct and the importance of scientific behavior and the scrutiny of the scientific community in the process of science. 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.
Discovering mass extinctions in the fossil record
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- lab activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 2 hours
Overview
This activity (suitable for distance learning) is designed to introduce students to the nature and process of science through the discovery of mass extinctions in the fossil record. Students will explore the fossil record of brachiopods and bivalves using the Paleobiological Database, identify patterns in their data, and generate and evaluate hypotheses. They will also document this process using the Understanding Science flowchart. Clicking the link below will download the Word file for this lesson.
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.
Fair tests in the fossil record: Avoiding extinction
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Teach about test design in the field of paleontology. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
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.
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 story behind the science
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Iowa State University
Resource type:
- article
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.
