Curated OER
History Theory of Evolution
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.
Curated OER
The Cytochrome-C Lab
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...
Curated OER
Embryology as Evidence of Evolution
Students observe the two major developmental pathways (protostome and deuterostome). They analyze data regarding differences in nucleotide sequences and construct a phylogenetic tree. They observe the similar evolutionary history shared...
Curated OER
Animal Kingdom Characteristics using Microsoft Access
Students create a computer database to discover relationships present in the Animal Kingdom. For this classification lesson, students enter data into a Microsoft Access database. They answer questions on a worksheet and create a visual...
Curated OER
Molecular Sequences & Primate Evolution: Amino Acids, Hemoglobins in Evolution
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...
Curated OER
Charles Darwin's Hardware Shop
Learners construct an evolutionary tree representing specialization, diversity, and selection using easily obtained materials. They use at least twenty pieces of hardware to classify then develop "evolutionary" relationships between the...
Curated OER
Molecular Biology and Primate Phylogenetics
Pairs of high school biologists compare amino acid differences in the beta hemoglobin of different primates. They use the information collected to construct a phylogenic tree. Follow-up discussion questions are provided. This is a...
Curated OER
Co-evolution of Plants and Pollinators
Students explore biological evolution and natural selection and its evolutionary consequences. They also explore how organisms are interdependent on one another.
Curated OER
Trees of our Forests
Young scholars use a field guide in order to identify trees. In this trees lesson plan, students classify the trees that they identify based on their relationships. Young scholars take a trip outdoors to look at trees.
Curated OER
Scavenger Hunt: A Group Collection
Students be complete a collection of living organisms and systems from the school campus.
Curated OER
What Is Your Explanation for the Evidence?
Students encounter an interactive computer program activity designed as a diagnostic of student beliefs related to the theory of evolution. Students process the Hypercard cascades structured around a set of biological topics related to...
Curated OER
Animal Forms
Students demonstrate similarities and differences in animal forms, including humans.They investigate geometric relationships within those forms by building an animal using Zome System elements.
Curated OER
Plant Phylogeny
Students examine live potted plants and create a hypothesis regarding their relationships in this upper-level introductory lesson on phylogenetic reconstruction using morphological characters. The lesson can be accomplished in...
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Ecology: Symbiosis
Eighth graders identify various types of symbiotic relationships. In this ecology lesson plan, 8th graders predict whether certain organisms can form symbiosis with other organisms. They discuss and defend their reasoning.
Curated OER
Powdery Mildew Fungi: Classification and Ecology
Students use a written key or illustrated key to identify fungi on plant leaves into its genus based on sexual or asexual reproduction, host range diversity, and host-parasite relationships.
Curated OER
Protists
Sort through the "junk drawer kingdom" as the protists laugh at our attempts to classify them! AP biology classes consider the array of organisms that do not file neatly into the other four kingdoms of classification. Evidence for the...
Curated OER
Teaching Biology Through Bioinformatics
Wow! A very detailed slideshow covers complex topics of genome research methods. This is advanced and relevant to the highest level of school biology. Excellent resource if you wish to expose your class to scientific methods and...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
A Strange Fish Indeed
Communication is one of the most important aspects of science. In a two-day activity, your high school or college-level biologists will read excerpts from a fictional diary of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the woman who discovered the...
Curated OER
Scale Drawings of Birds
High schoolers create their own copies of Phoenix Birds using a grid system.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Impacts of Climate on Forest Succession
Part two in a series of four explores the effects of climate on succession or the changing of plant species in a forest. Groups review how to identify trees and then spend a day in the field collecting extensive data on trees to...
LABScI
Taxonomy: Who is in My family?
Find similarities in seemingly unlike organisms. The second instructional activity in a series of 12 builds the concept of a taxonomy and explores the use of a dichotomous key. Learners begin in part one by attempting to group a set of...
Curated OER
His and Her-bariums
Students collect and identify plant species from campus, create a home herbarium, and compare with the plant species from school.
Curated OER
Catalase: A Bioinformatics Case Study
Students investigate the physical structure of a protein by using a computer simulation tool. They record its primary amino acid structure while viewing it in three dimensions for a better visual recognition. There is also a comparison...
Curated OER
PRIMATE CLASSIFICATION: Evolution, Cladograms,
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...