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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Human Evolution: Biology, Bones

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Learners will love a weeks worth of bone study. They use bones and characteristics of bones to explore the evolution of hominoids. Bones are compared, categorized, and considered. A great way to bring physical anthropology and material...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

PRIMATE CLASSIFICATION: Evolution, Cladograms,

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students transfer examples (names) of primates from their location in an outline hierarchy of primate groups into a set of nested boxes reflecting that same hierarchy. A cladogram can then be drawn illustrating how these groups are...
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Lesson Plan
ARKive

Biodiversity and Evolution – Darwin’s Finches

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Teens experience natural selection firsthand (or first beak) in an activity that has them act as finches foraging for food. Using different household items  to act as different beak styles, your little finches will collect as much...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Molecular Sequences & Primate Evolution: Amino Acids, Hemoglobins in Evolution

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students compare differences in amino acids in the beta hemoglobin from representative primates, complete a matrix of those differences, and from these data, construct and interpret cladograms as they reflect relationships and timing of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Natural Selection

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Learners comprehend that natural selectionis the tool for adaptation and evolution of populations. They pick three M&M's and no candy corns. Students tally the number of different color M&M's chosen. They discuss why colors...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History Theory of Evolution

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students identify fossils. They identify evidence of change over time when given pictures of fossils to determine the proper sequencing. In addition, they determine evolutionary relationships by comparing embryonic structures.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Investigating Evolutionary Questions: Bats, Whales, Reptiles, Birds, Animal Classification

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed
Students are guided through a process in which three questions are addressed by retrieving beta hemoglobin sequences from online databases, and using online tools to compare those sequences in student-selected animals.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Cytochrome-C Lab

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine a method biologists use to try to determine relationships. They examine how amino acid sequences have been determined for a number of proteins, and how scientists can make inferences about DNA based on the amino acid...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Great Fossil Find - Reconstructing the Pieces

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers go on an imaginary fossil hunt. They follow a script read by the teacher, students "find" (remove from envelope) paper "fossils" of some unknown creature. They attempt to reconstruct fossil pieces into an animal.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Evolutionary Exchange

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students discuss the difference between designed and natural elements. After reading an article, they discover information about current controversies in evolutionary science. In groups, they research and write dialogues between two...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

VARVES: Dating Sedimentary Strata: Geology, Paleontological Patterns

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Learners count the number of varves (annual layers of sediment) in shale billets, taken from the Green River Formation in Wyoming. The count is then extended to reflect the entire 260 meters of sediments where the billets originated.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Classification and Binomial Nomenclature

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students practice identifying different groups of living organisms using a dichotomous key. Students also examine the history of an organism and its lineage by writing a paragraph about it and "three generations" of ancestors.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lotto or Life: What Are the Chances?

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Though the website does not seem to have the mentioned video, a reding and lottery style games simulate the chances of finding intelligent life somewhere other than Earth. Without the video, this lesson is short, but it can be a useful...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Process of Speciation

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students illustrate the results of natural selection by identifying conditions that could lead to the development of new species (speciation) based on a given description of environmental conditions and description of variation within a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Steppin' Out: Using Inquiry to Challente Alexander's Stride Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers distinguish between walking, jogging and running trackways in humans. They analyze the phylogenetic progression of the leg position as described by pace width and angulation, comparing amphibians, reptiles and mammals....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Why Don't Whales Have Legs?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students are given a variety of materials and are asked to design a heat loss experiment that results in a reasonable explanation of "Why don't whales have legs?" students work with the theory of natural selection.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Finding the Ages of Rocks and Fossils

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students practice dating fossils. They learn the concept of "deep time"--that earth was formed billions of years ago. They experience excellent hand-outs and virtual age tutorial links.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Social Issues Facing Children

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine the issues facing children in society. In groups, they participate in a simulation to discover the lack of connection between child-support and how it affects the children and society as a whole. To end the lesson...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

OF SUNSETS, SOULS AND SENSES: Science, Scientific Methods, Natural and Supernatural

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students explore the realm and limits of science. Engages students to give examples of topics that can be studied by science, and those that cannot. This also takes a examine descriptive terms, which reflect the true nature of modern...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Hominoid Cranium Comparison

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students describe, measure and compare cranial casts from contemporary apes (chimpanzees and gorillas, typically), modern humans and fossil "hominids" (erect and bipedal forms evolutionarily separated from apes).
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pseudogene Suite

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use Biology Workbench to explore DNA sequence data for the GULOP gene in humans, chimpanzees, orangutans, and crab-eating macaques and the beta globin gene and its pseduogene in humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Flower Dissection

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate th anatomy of a flower. They investigate the structures and processes by which flowering plants generate pollen, ovules, seeds, and fruit through dissection,
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Glacial Geology in the Field

For Teachers Higher Ed
Students examine the origin of glaciers, how glacial sediments are deposited, and what sedimentary records of glaciation provide about source and process of glaciers in a field lab.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mechanism of Our Eyes

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students study the eye as the organ of vision, They look at a drawing of the eyes and study the names of the parts. While working with a partner, they observe what happens when the lights are turned lower and lower. Finally, they look at...