MS-ESS3-3

Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

  1. Environment

    Cheatgrass thrives on the well-lit urban night scene

    Middle-grade campers team up with ecologists at Denver University to show that streetlights boost the growth of a reviled invasive species.

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  2. Tech

    Tiny swimming robots may help clean up a microplastics mess

    Big problem, tiny solution. Researchers in the Czech Republic have designed swimming robots that can help collect and break down microplastics.

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  3. Tech

    Let’s learn about artificial intelligence

    Computers are getting smarter all the time. At some tasks, they can even outsmart people.

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  4. Environment

    Warming cities may see more rain — and frequent flooding

    Scientists are seeking to understand why and how to mop up excess precipitation.

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  5. Environment

    Explainer: Urban heat islands and how to cool them

    Cities transform landscapes covered in plants to ones covered in heat-absorbing asphalt and concrete. But ways exist to cool these urban heat islands.

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  6. Earth

    Stores and malls buy into ponds and rain gardens for flood control

    An extra bonus: These rainy-day ponds clean up that dirty water running off parking lots.

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  7. Environment

    Let’s learn about plastic pollution

    The world is cluttered with plastic waste. All that junk kills animals far and wide.

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  8. Chemistry

    Lots of makeup may contain potentially harmful ‘forever chemicals’

    Hints of PFAS compounds have turned up in about half of tested makeup products. Waterproof mascaras and lipsticks were very likely to contain them.

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  9. Climate

    New UN climate report finds no time for denial or delay

    It links extreme weather around the globe to Earth’s changing climate.

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  10. Environment

    ‘Zombie’ wildfires can reemerge after wintering underground

    Climate change may make these not-quite-dead blazes more common. Scientists are learning to predict where a zombie might emerge.

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  11. Climate

    U.S. records reveal the last 30 years were the hottest on record

    New ‘climate normals’ show that average temperatures increased notably just since 1990.

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  12. Earth

    ‘Tree farts’ make up about a fifth of greenhouse gases from ghost forests

    Heat-trapping gases from dead trees play an important role in the environmental impact of “ghost” forests.

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