Grades 6-8
Activity
Solve a Sedimentary Layers Puzzle
The history of life on Earth is recorded in the planet's rock layers. Try your hand at reconstructing geologic history with this fossil-filled puzzle.
Activity
Flesh Out a Fossil
Discover how artists bring dinosaur skeletons to life with skin, feathers, and other features. Then try to create your own lifelike Velociraptor from a skeletal drawing.
Activity
Understanding Exploration
Compass, dog sled, telephone, computer, Global Positioning System (GPS)—which of these technological advances has made the biggest contribution to Antarctic exploration? Take our research challenge.
Activity
Locating a Point
The full force of the Antarctic winter is just days away, and you're deep into your research on a fallen meteorite. How can you mark its exact location for your return in six months?
curriculum materials
The Search for Life: Are We Alone? Educator's Guide Insert
Life exists on Earth because of the favorable balance of water, elements, and other conditions. What would happen if the balance changed? And what role did the formation of the solar system play?
Article
Formation of the Solar System
About 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system came into being. This comic strip explains the processes that led to the creation of the planets and the asteroid belt.
Article
Cosmic Chemistry
What happened after the Big Bang? This comic strip explains the interactions that lead to the creation of stars, planetary nebulas, and supernovas.
Article
Impacts
Why do you think they call it “Impacts"? A comic strip shows what can happen—and does happen—when asteroids head for Earth.
Article
Light and Dark in the Sea
Only the top 200 meters (656 feet) of the ocean get enough light to support plants. Below 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), there's complete darkness. So how do organisms on the sea floor find food?
Article
Dispatch from the Deep: Shaping the Ocean Floor at the Mid-Ocean Ridges
Did you know that the island of Iceland is really just the peak of an underwater mountain? What other land forms lie hidden beneath the ocean, and how are they formed?
