Lesson Plan
Serendip

Evolution of Fur Color in Mice – Mutation, Environment and Natural Selection

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Most species of animals include a variety of fur or hair color, but why? Scholars watch a video about a changing environment for mice. As the rocks around them change hues, different colors of mice begin to thrive. Discussion questions...
Assessment
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2009

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Emerging ecologists need a full understanding of life, from the inner workings of a cell to the complex relationships among organisms. This examination is meant to assess high schoolers after an entire year of courses on the living...
Assessment
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Exam: Living Environment 2008

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The New York Regents High School Examinations are comprehensive and include various question formats, including multiple choice and graph analysis. This particular version, the 2008 Living Environment exam, surveys a variety of topics....
Assessment
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2003

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The living environment, from the interior of a cell to the complex relationships among populations, is queried in this final examination. Learners examine air pollution maps, cell diagrams, population graphs, and drawings of cells. They...
Lesson Plan
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2010

For Teachers 9th - 12th
This exam covers every topic in a typical first-year biology course. A wide variety of question styles gives high schoolers every opportunity to show what they know. Why start from scratch when a comprehensive final exam is easily...
Assessment
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2007

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Environmental science enthusiasts show what they know at the end of the year by taking this full-fledged final exam. They answer multiple-choice, graph interpretation, and essay-analysis questions, 73 of them in all. Topics range from...
Assessment
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2005

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The 2005 version of the Regents High School Examination in ecology is as comprehensive as previous years' exams. It consists of 40 multiple-choice questions on topics ranging from the structure of DNA to interactions within an ecosystem....
Lesson Plan
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Adaptations must be made as environments change. This fabulous presentation features Icelandic icefish, a transparent, scaleless specimen that even has colorless blood. Genetics and adaptations concepts are explored as scientists study...
Assessment
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Examination, Living Environment 2007

For Teachers 9th - 12th
In this environment worksheet, young scholars complete a series of multiple-choice and short-answer questions on genetics, populations, and cell structure.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Variations in Living Things

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Biology beginners observe traits in a collection of plant parts to realize the tremendous amount of genetic variation within a species. They consider rules of nature and discuss what would happen if they changed. They also examine data...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mutations--Preexisting or Acquired?

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students explore the reasoning and experimental approaches to mutations. They expose a culture of E. coli to virulent bacteriophage and observe whether mutations of the cells existed previously or if the bacteria mutated as a response...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Natural Selection and Evolution of Rock Pocket Mouse Populations

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Can evolution repeat itself? Scholars analyze amino acid data in two separate populations of mice. They learn that evolution repeats itself, but natural selection prefers some mutations over others in different environments. Analysis...
Assessment
New York State Education Department

Regents High School Examination, Living Environment 2004

For Teachers 9th - 12th
In this environmental worksheet, students complete a series of multiple-choice and short-answer questions on cell types, cell division, chromosomes, and plant species.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oyster Morphs: Adaptations to the Environment

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students demonstrate how organisms adapt to their environment. They examine prey and predators, natural selection, and adaptations by representing oyster morph.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Evolution

For Teachers 6th - 11th
Explore the concept of evolution and cell biology; your class can work in groups to use the internet to view websites on evolution, take a quiz, and complete a lab activity.
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Modeling the Regulatory Switches of the Pitx1 Gene in Stickleback Fish

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Gene switches work similarly to light switches in controlling one feature of their environments. Scholars study the Pitx1 gene in a specific type of fish. They learn the different ways this switch controls various body parts and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Things Go Wrong

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students identify where mutations might occur and examine what effect those mutations will have through class discussion of DNA replication and cell division. Students then differentiate between mutations that affect individuals and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dogs & Darwin

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders construct and conduct a laboratory experiment illustrating the transfer of mutations. They compare and contrast natural selection in organisms with long and short reproductive cycles.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Protein Synthesis and Words

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explain the roles of mRNA, tRNA and ribosomes. They explain how mutations can occur in an individual. Students simulate parts of a cell to access about the process of protein synthesis.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Populations – The Survival of the Fittest (Part 1)

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students explain in their own words why organisms live together. In this biology lesson, students model what happens to organisms if their environment changes. They explain the importance of evolution.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Genetics 4 Mutations

For Teachers 7th - 11th
Students identify and illustrate how changes in DNA cause mutations and evaluate the significance of these changes. They illustrate a chromosomal mutation such as duplication, deletion, inversion, and translocation.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Squirrel Islands

For Teachers 7th - 9th
In this adaptations worksheet, young scholars read about 3 species that have changed over time to adapt to their environment. Students design a squirrel that has adapted to an island habitat that young scholars are assigned. They...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Selection and Variation in the Egyptian Origami Bird

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students participate in a contrived natural selection simulation in which they build and modify simple paper airplanes. They study divergent and convergent evolution and how it is isolated in sub-populations.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cell Wall Recipe: A Lesson on Biofuels

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Biotech engineers discover that changes in the DNA code for cell wall formation can help create crops better suited for biofuel production. They extract DNA from wheat germ. They decode paper strips with codes and relate the activity to...