Science is often taught from textbooks. Textbooks that take years to get published and distributed to students. Those texts books just aren't dynamic enough to have up to date information about major science discoveries.
There also isn't a lot of room for conjecture. Textbooks are written to be resources. Resources that present established information and well-founded theories.
But what about the unusual stuff, or the new stuff, or the "what were they even thinking" stuff. Well, kids love that stuff too. In an effort to staying excited about science, our class does a weekly Current Science activity. In Current Science, students read any article they find interesting with the understanding that they'll then present their reading to the class.
It's a really great way to practice public speaking skills, summarizing, boost reading comprehension practice, and squeeze in a bit of extra science just for good measure.
