Curated OER
Structural Factors in Evolution
Laboratory activities encourage evolutionary biology scholars to consider homologous structures as evidence of common ancestry. They learn how to formulate phylogenic trees and that environment influences to genetic variation. Activities...
Virginia Department of Education
Adaptation and Evolution
Um may be the atomic symbol for confusion, but it won't be needed in this instructional activity. Scholars rotate through seven stations completing experiments, hands-on activities, writing exercises, and analysis. Stations include...
Curated OER
Tutti Frutti
Get some competition going in your life science class. Give lab groups a variety of plant parts, all of them fruits, except one. Their mission is to make observations, compare and contrast, in order to be the first to identify the...
Curated OER
The Effect of Natural Selection on Genes, Traits and Individuals
Rotating through five stations, evolutionary biologists explore the question of how changes in DNA facilitate the changes in a population over time. High-quality, colorful cards of animals, skeletons, skulls, and DNA sequences can all be...
Curated OER
Homologous Shoes
Students examine the concept of homology by observing their shoes and those of their classmates. They summarize the observations of everyone's shoes relating it to chromosomes in cells. They share their observations with the class.
Curated OER
Evidence of Change
Pupils identify evidence of change in species using fossils, anatomical similarities, and embryology. They identify homologous structures and arrange the steps of fossil formation. Students complete a group of selection of organisms by...
Curated OER
Natural Selection
Students estimate how many different species of organisms inhabit the Earth. In groups, they match the pictures of embryos at the different stages of development. They compare and contrast animals from the sky, land, and water and...
Curated OER
Homology: Where Does The Evidence Lead
Students are introduced to the topic of homology. In groups, they read a case study and compare different drawings of early vertebrate emryos. They work together to answer discussion questions and label the various parts of each embryo.
Curated OER
Homology
Young scholars investigate the concept of homology. They are particularly interested in finding information about developmental homology. Students design a new animal correcting obvious mistakes on a worksheet provided by the teacher....
Curated OER
Meiosis, Gene Linkage and Maps
Students identify the structures that actually assort independently. They are taught how gene maps are produced. Students compare the processes of mitosis and meiosis. They are shown their (mitosis and meiosis) significane to sexual...
Curated OER
Diversity and Adaptation
Tenth graders explore structure, function and variation among species. Through field observations, lab activities and homework, 10th graders observe and record examples of adaptation and variation.
Curated OER
History Theory of Evolution
Learners 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
Darwin's Theory
Students write an essay about evolution. They summarize Darwin's Theory and discuss its strength and weakness of evolutionary theory. Students discuss the struggle of existence and survival of the fittest. They discuss the evidence of...
Curated OER
Introduction To Floral Morphology
Pupils create a model of the four basic whorls of flowers using a water bottle, construction paper and Q-tips. They then examine fresh flower specimens to see how the basic structure can vary in different species of flowering plants.
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
Natural Selection
Eighth graders define natural selection and adaptation. They simulate natural selection within a species and relate the elements of natural selection to the simulation. They analyze the results of natural selection in terms of...
Curated OER
The Cytochrome-C Lab
Young scholars 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...
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Proteomics
Students analyze data taken from proteomic experiments. In this biology lesson, students explain the importance of bioinformatics tools in the study of proteins. They evaluate scientific results using math and computer software.
Curated OER
Making Cladograms
Students construct cladograms (evolutionary trees), showing how shared derived characters can be used to reveal degrees of relationship. They interpret and analyze cladograms, and determine where unclassified vertebrates would fit on a...
Curated OER
Molecular Modeling Activity
Students explore the concept of molecular modeling and differentiate between saturated and unsaturated compounds. In small groups, they identify molecular formulas, complete a chart comparing alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes, and construct...
Curated OER
Cell Division and Mitosis
Students identify each phase of mitosis and the main characteristics of each. Students prepare a microscope slide with onion root tip. Students observe the cell division occurring in the cells and label the mitosis phases observed.
Curated OER
Pheed the World: Edible Phyla
Students discuss the contributions of different organisms to our world. In this biology lesson, students research countries with limited food supply. They create an improvement plan for a fictitious country assigned to them.
Curated OER
Thanksgiving: Bird Evolution
High schoolers explore the evolution of birds. In this biology lesson, students research articles that discuss evidence about the ancestry of birds. They discuss their findings with the group and draw a journal magazine cover...