Making Cladograms

In this evolution activity, students will determine the evolutionary relationships among organisms using cladograms and phylogenetic diagrams. This activity has 13 short answer questions and 3 multiple choice questions.

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...

How have we become what we've become? The presentation slides explain the process of evolution from a body plan viewpoint. They describe the evolution of each body plan including body symmetry, embryological development, cephalization,...

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...

Students develop a matrix to determine the number of differences between each set of primate species. They determine closely related organisms then complete the cladogram and answer a set of questions.

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...

As the great and hilarious Tim Minchin once said, "Science is simply the word we use to describe a method of organizing our curiosity." Science is more than just a guess; it is based on questions, observations, and evidence. High...

Students experience, through a "dig," the historical discovery of fossils which increasingly link whales to earlier land-dwelling mammals. They encounter the intermediate forms which show changes that lead to the modern whale.

Biology aces analyze restriction maps to determine the relationships among different primate species and then complete a cladogram. Preface this lesson plan with an explanation of how restriction enzymes are used to create the DNA maps....

Students view pictures of distant "cousins" to humans. They place them in order by their distance from humans. Students receive a packet of six pages featuring graphics and a cousins summary page. They work in groups to complete 5 cousin...