Resource Collection
Use this index to plan phenomenon-based learning, inquiry routines, and discussion-ready science lessons for your classroom. Each card highlights the unit Driving Question(s) so you can quickly choose the lesson that fits the student question, real-world phenomenon, or class discussion you want to build around.
Animal Collective: How group behavior can produce surprising problems—and solutions!
Questions
3 questions
Why do humans and other animals live in groups?
How do simple behavioral rules lead to emergence of novel properties at the group level? (i.e. How do animal flocks, market trends, and viral videos emerge from animal collective behaviors?)?
How do scientists use computer simulations and other tools to study emergence?
Balancing Act: Tradeoffs in frogs, humans, and other animals
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Questions
3 questions
How do trade-offs in how organisms use limited energy and time affect survival and reproduction?
How do performance thresholds influence mate selection?
What insights can we gain about natural selection in Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla versicolor) from the research findings of Dr. Reichert?
Bioinspired Design: Looking to Biology for Better Solutions
Questions
2 questions
How can we use organismal adaptations to design better engineering solutions?
What products in our daily lives could be more sustainable, functional, or aesthetically pleasing?
Colorful Solutions: Chemical Engineering Dyes to Brighten Lives
Questions
1 question
How have different dye technologies been used to produce colorful clothing across cultures and over time?
Electric Crystals: Exploring how crystal symmetry can power everyday life
Questions
2 questions
What are crystals and how do they form?
How is molecular microstructure connected to functionality and properties we can easily observe?
Fairywrens and the Art of Inquiry: How do scientists pick a question to study?
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Questions
2 questions
How do scientists pick a question to investigate?
How does a scientific question develop while collecting data?
Females singing to be heard: Challenging long-held assumptions about birdsong through data visualization
Questions
1 question
What is the best way to visualize data?
Future Foods: Can we reduce the carbon footprint of our favorite meals?
Questions
3 questions
What is a carbon footprint?
What stages of production (from farm to table) have the biggest impact on the carbon footprint of foods?
What are possible solutions to minimize the impact of our food supply on climate change?
Genetic Rescue to the Rescue: Preventing extinction through gene flow
Questions
1 question
Can genetic rescue (a conservation strategy involving movement of individuals across populations) prevent the extinction of endangered species?
Guardian Frogs of Borneo: Why Exceptions Matter in Biology and Everyday Life
Questions
2 questions
Across animal species, is there truth to the stereotype that males are “competitive,” while females are “caring”, or is this an oversimplification?
Are the smooth guardian frogs of Borneo the first known species of frog with “competitive females” and “caring males”?
Heard That Bird: A Pop Culture Intro to Birding by Ear
Questions
3 questions
What natural sounds surround us as we go about our daily lives?
What can bird sounds teach us about human emotion and communication?
How can spectrograms (sound visualizations) be used to help us identify birds in the environment?
Hybrid Zones: Evolution's Testing Grounds
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Questions
3 questions
What is hybridization and how does it impact evolution?
Is hybridization good, bad or neutral?
How is climate change impacting hybridization and evolution?
I Like That!: How perception, emotion, and cognition shape our preferences
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Questions
2 questions
What makes humans and other animals perceive something as beautiful?
How does the way our brain processes visual input from our eyes affect how we perceive and interact with the world?
Mā te rauhiringa tātou e ora: Powerful Solutions: How do we provide sustainable energy to communities?
Questions
3 questions
What is “energy” and where does it come from?
How is energy produced in New Zealand and in other countries around the world?
How does energy consumption impact the environment?
Micro Matchups: A multimedia-rich exploration of protists
Questions
3 questions
What is a protist?
What do ecological interactions, like predation, look like in protist ecosystems?
How is climate change affecting protist ecosystems?
Pacific H2O: A Choose-Your-Own STEM Adventure
Questions
3 questions
In what ways do you and your community rely on clean water?
What technologies do engineers use to purify water and how can we use them in the classroom?
How do Pacific Island nations, surrounded by saltwater, provide fresh, clean water to the public?
Photon Engineers: Tinkering with Light
Questions
2 questions
How can light be used to measure, transmit, and control information?
How does light behave in various media?
SciJourneys: Building Resilience in Science
Questions
2 questions
Understand that how science works is diverse, dynamic, and requires resilience.
Practices and approaches that scientists take are not distinct from, and often draw upon, skills cultivated through arts and humanities?
The Science of Craft: Building New Materials with Old Techniques
Questions
3 questions
How does shape give a material new properties?
Can we use geometry to predict structure?
Where do the principles of mechanics and motion show up in the materials we use every day?
What Do Birds Do in Winter?: A data-driven investigation of remarkable adaptations
Questions
2 questions
How do birds cope with the cold?
How does temperature affect the feeding patterns of birds over the winter?
In science teaching, a phenomenon is an observable event or pattern in the real world that students can notice, wonder about, and try to explain. A phenomenon might be something local and concrete, like erosion on a schoolyard hill, or something large-scale, like shifting climate patterns.
Phenomenon-based learning starts with something students can observe or make sense of, then builds science learning around the questions and explanations that follow. It matters because it gives students a reason to learn the content: they are not just covering topics, they are using ideas and evidence to explain something real.
Galactic Polymath units are built around real research, real data, and real-world contexts that give teachers strong material for phenomenon-based instruction. This page showcases the unit Driving Question(s) rather than listing the full phenomena directly, because the driving question is usually the clearest planning signal for a teacher deciding which unit best fits a classroom investigation or discussion sequence.
A Driving Question is the central question that guides a lesson or unit investigation. In phenomenon-based learning, the phenomenon creates the need for explanation, and the Driving Question gives students and teachers a clear way to pursue that explanation through discussion, evidence, modeling, and investigation.