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Grades 6-8

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?