Using NewsHour Extra Worksheets

Overview: NewsHour Extra worksheets can help students follow along and identify key points in NewsHour science broadcast pieces.

Warm Up: Introduce the topic of the broadcast piece and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Hand out the worksheet and have students answer the questions as they watch the NewsHour segment.

Need a DVD of the science segment?: Write to science@newshour.org.

Story: Researchers Examine Impact of Exercise on Aging, 3/31/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june08/aging_03-31.html

Worksheet Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why are researchers such as Gordon Lithgow studying roundworms?

Because roundworms have genes similar to the ones involved in human old-age diseases, so figuring out how to extend roundworm lifespans could give clues to extending human lifespans.

2. What are some of the diseases that researchers in the Buck Institute's 15 labs are studying?

Researchers in the 15 labs are studying Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, among others .

3. Why does researcher Simon Melov believe that exercise is important for the elderly?

Because exercise can rejuvenate muscle tissue and slow down and even reverse biological indicators of aging.

4. Researcher Cynthia Kenyon, who is using gene manipulation to try to slow down the aging process, recently founded a company. What product is that company aiming to develop?

Kenyon wants to develop a pill that would slow down the processes that make people age.

5. Why is it more difficult to study aging in humans than in animals, according to researchers?

It's more difficult to study aging in humans than in animals because humans live longer than animals, so experiments would take a very long time.

For more NewsHour Science Reports, go to www.pbs.org/newshour/science.

For more science lesson plans and worksheets, go to www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/science.