It sounds like the plot of a black-and-white, sci-fi B-movie: Rural residents hear a steadily increasing loud noise that crescendoes into an explosion, after which they find an “object, metallic in nature, created a crater 41 feet in diameter [and 16 feet deep] and produced a seismic shock equivalent to a 1.5-magnitude earthquake. . . […]

“A total of 16 large fires are burning 1,010,720 acres throughout the country. The majority of the fire activity remains in the West.” This statement was part of the daily report on the National Interagency Fire Center home page on September 14. Does the number of acres seem shockingly high to you? Can you fathom […]

Looking for a timely and concise way to integrate the grades 5-8 National Science Education Standards into a study of the impact of acid rain? Read on!
Middle school students have probably heard of “acid rain” and know it to be a bad thing. They might even know it comes from nitrogen and sulfur compounds emitted […]

It’s a sure bet many of your students are lamenting their height, wondering when or if they’ll ever grow into their feet! Tall and lanky? Blame your genes was the lead story on ABC News in Science, Monday, September 03, 2007. This story illustrates several concepts associated with the methods of science and scientific enterprises, […]

The NSDL Middle School Portal is hosting this blog to encourage teachers to use current events as teaching opportunities. Every Thursday, MSP staff will link a current news article to related teaching resources that connect specific content standards to that event. Articles may be appropriate for students to read directly, or they may serve […]