Curated OER
Hidden Animals
Students predict the safest seashore substrate for animals. In this animal habitat experiment, students predict, test their hypothesis, and record data about how wave shocks affect animals living on either sand, gravel or rock.
Curated OER
Behavior Adaptations
In this behavior worksheet, students review different types of behavioral adaptations including migration, hibernation, and communication. This worksheet has 10 matching and 10 true or false questions.
Curated OER
Sexual Selection in the Animal Kingdom
High schoolers research how sexual selection plays a role in driving evolution. They experiment how variation exists within not just obvious physical traits, but metabolically and behaviorally. They write a letter describing a problem,...
It's About Time
Adaptations
Congratulations! You exist, thanks to the wonders of biology and adaptations. The focus of the lesson explains many adaptations of plants and animals and how the environment has influenced the process. A hands-on activity demonstrates...
Curated OER
Pets: Oh Behave
Students develop an understanding of how innate and learned behaviors and the environment determine behavior. They see how a variety of factors affects our pet's behavior-including species-specific traits, the environment, training, and...
Curated OER
What Makes a Cat a Cat?
Students investigate the lives of pets by videotaping them. In this animal life activity, students videotape a cat and other pets using school cameras in a computer lab. Students review the footage from the cat and other animals and...
Curated OER
Stimulus Response
Students explore the five steps in the stimulus-response pathway. They analyze the senses and the difference between animals' primary and secondary senses. Students collect information about animal behavior to debate the ethics of...
Curated OER
Can't Wait - Gotta Migrate:The Monarch Butterfly
Students study the migratory behavior of the monarch butterfly and to carefully develop a scientific method for answering one question concerning their behavior. They perform many meaningful tasks which help them explain the Monarch...
Facing History and Ourselves
Stereotypes and “Single Stories”
Help bring subconscious stereotypes to the surface to stop it in its tracks. Pupils first read an excerpt describing the experience of prejudice and analyze how this process connects to World War II. Then, they write a creative story...
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
DNA Is Only the Beginning for Understanding the Human Genome
Mario Capecchi requested funding for a new procedure targeting genes and was rejected. Four years later, after he proved it worked, the NIH apologized and funded his research. Use an online interactive to learn about his research and the...
NC Cooperative Extension, Guilford County Center
Life Cycle Of Painted Lady Butterflies
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the inspiration for this project-based learning activity. Kindergartners create a lifecycle chart for a butterfly with four sections: egg, caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly. It is a three-dimensional...
Curated OER
Field Guide to Schoolyard Insects and Their Relatives
Sometimes all you need to complete your perfect lesson plan is an awesome hands-on learning experience. Here is an extension activity that is sure to excite your learners. They'll head outside to observe the local insect community. When...
Virginia Department of Education
Adaptation and Evolution
Um may be the atomic symbol for confusion, but it won't be needed in this lesson. Scholars rotate through seven stations completing experiments, hands-on activities, writing exercises, and analysis. Stations include material on...
Cornell University
Diffraction Demystified
Study diffraction patterns using CDs and DVDs! Scholars measure the diffraction patterns of a light wave as it hits a CD or DVD. Using the information, they can measure the distance between the tracks.
American Museum of Natural History
Ask a Scientist About Dinosaurs
Who doesn't want to know more about the mysterious dinosaurs? Learners read about dinosaurs and the process scientists use to continue learning more about the animals in an interview-type format. A paleontologist responds to submitted...
Curated OER
Art as a profession
Students research a possible career in computer animation. In this computer animation lesson plan, students research the amount of money you could make in computer animation and the kinds of jobs you could acquire.
Curated OER
Animal Migratory patterns
Middle schoolers use field research and traditional research to identify migrating species of birds as well as their migratory patterns. Students generate a list of questions regarding migration and a plan to research the questions. A...
Curated OER
Welcome Back to the Computer Lab: Starting a New School Year
Get kids re-oriented to the computer lab for back-to-school. The constructivist approach in this session allows children to exert ownership of their behavior in the computer lab. Read aloud a few books about good and poor manners, as...
Curated OER
Survival Under a Rock
Young scholars investigate ways that animals adapt to their environments through hands-on activities using isopods and an interactive video.
Curated OER
Termite Lab
Students examine insect behavior in a lab activity. Students explore the idea of chemical specificity and the reactions of termites to a chemical found in their trail pheromone. Students watch a demonstration with termites before...
Curated OER
The Life Cycle of the Mealworm
Fourth graders provide a habitat for live mealworms and observe their life cycle. For this animal life cycle and scientific inquiry lesson, 4th graders create a habitat for a live mealworm and observe and record related data as it grows....
Curated OER
Effects of Water Pollution on Aquatic Organisms
Students investigate water pollution. They develop an understanding of the behavior of organisms, of the structure and properties of matter, and of natural and human induced hazards by conducting lab tests. They present their data...
Curated OER
Spiders: An Organism for Teaching Biology
In this unit, the students explore basic ecology concepts and scientific processes using spiders as model organisms. They capture spiders, observe and care for them, and use them to answer their own questions about spider behavior....