Cheetah Outreach
Nutrition
What can teeth tell us about an animal's diet? Learners examine animal skulls to determine what their canines, incisros, premolars, and molars reveal.Â
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Skulls Tell It All
Skulls tell it all, and with this lesson plan, you will tell it all to your class! Youngsters view animal skulls, analyzing the shape of teeth and the placement of the eye sockets. They associate these adaptations with the types of food...
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Day of the Dead Skulls
El Dia De La Muertos or Day of the Dead is a wonderful Mexican tradition that celebrates loved ones who have passed away. Children get a chance to create unique skulls out of clay, based on traditional designs. A wooden stylus is used to...
Cool Craniums
Rise to the head of the class. Using mammal skulls, groups of pupils identify aspects of them. The teams make predictions on the classification of mammal the skull belongs to based upon the observations.
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Hominoid Skull Comparison
Students are provided with evidence used to support evolutionary theory. They are introduced to classification by using primates as an example. Students read article related to Hominoid Skull Comparison and write a summary about the...
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Ecology Lessons
Students examine the relationship between animal adaptations, habitats and community interactions. In this ecology lesson students complete a skull detective worksheet then use their knowledge to analyze a skull.Â
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Studying Fossils: Hominoid Skull Comparison
Students collect data on the differences in Hominid skulls using acrylic casts of fossil skulls. They measure a series of structures on skulls from six different species then use the data to determine evolutionary relationships between...
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Wildlife Animal Skulls
Students observe skulls of wild animals and determine their characteristics for survival. They evaluate the skuylls to discover the diets, and if the animals were predators or prey. They complete worksheets on mystery skulls.
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How Did Humans Evolve?
Students are introduced to four important fossil finds: the First Family, the Hadar Skull, Lucy, and the Laetoli Footprints. They explore how scientists interpret fossils to try to better comprehend how humans evolved. This activity...
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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...
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From Human Skeletons to Owl Pellets to Paleontology
Students explore about the function of the skeleton and comprehend the names of the bones of the human skeleton. They compare bones of the human skeleton to a dinosaur skeleton and graph to compare these bones. Students sort bones to...
Desert Discoveries
What's For Dinner?
Youngsters compare the teeth of plant-eating dinosaurs with those of meat-eating dinosaurs. The concepts of herbivore vs. carnivore are also introduced. There is an excellent worksheet embedded in the plan which shows five skulls of...
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Cotton Swab Skeletons
To truly teach through the arts means one must tackle both art and core content in one lesson plan. This quick activity does just that. Learners make skeletons out of cotton swabs in order to study relief sculpture and the skeletal...
University of Minnesota
Bead Neuron
What do you call a skull without neurons? A no-brainer! A hands-on activity asks scholars to build a model of a neuron using beads. They use their models to study the parts of the neuron and their functions.
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A Tooth for a Tooth
Learners classify mammals as carnivores or herbivores. They look at a set of pictures of animal skulls, observing the shape and size of the teeth, and identify herbivores and carnivores.
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El Dia de Los Muertos
How does the Spanish culture view death? Gain the interest of your learners by showing them a skull (if you can get one). How is this Spanish celebration similar or different than Halloween? As an extension, you could dedicate a class...
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Activity: Bird Beak Buffet
Middle schoolers study the functions of bird beaks. In this animal evolution instructional activity, students compare and contrast different types of bird beaks focusing on how the beaks are adapted to the foods the birds eat. Middle...
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Heads Up
To celebrate cultural diversity and multicultural awareness, learners explore the nature of headwear used around the world. They brainstorm the types of headwear they've seen, and then discuss why people wear coverings on their heads....
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"How Do You Measure Up?"
Fourth graders explore basic measurements by analyzing their own bodies. In this human anatomy activity, 4th graders identify the units used to measure a human body such as centimeters, inches, ounces and pounds. Students complete a...
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A Phylogenetic Perspective for the Cladistically Challenged
Students observe the structures of skulls as presented in drawings, and determine which are most closely related to the skull of the mosasaur.
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Draw T. rex
Students explore how scientists determine what prehistoric animals looked like based on their bones. They draw a picture of the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex by copying an image from an overhead or book.
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El Dia de Los Muertos: Mexican Celebrations
Students research Spanish speaking individuals and the holiday, The Day of the Dead, using Internet and print resources. They orally present their research. Students engage in Mexican traditions by making either a lapida (headstone) or...
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Animal Signs
Students discuss the many different types of animal signs that can be used to identify and track animals. They participate in an hands-on activity in which they examine tracks, trails, homes, territory markings, and even "scat" left by...
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Food Web
Students identify producers and consumers, including scavengers and decomposers, and discuss role each plays in food web. They then make diagram of possible food chain that might include skull pictured on Montana's quarter, and...