Prairie Adaptations

After cutting down a forest to make a farm, how long would it take the environment to turn an abandoned farm back into a forest? Scholars study this exact scenario while they interpret many charts and graphs of the changing ecosystems as...

It's not often that you come across a clever laboratory activity that is both imaginative and comprehensive! Using M&M's and Reese's peanut butter candies to represent two different clam species, young biologists test for "relative...

Designed to accompany the 13-minute video The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes, this handout serves as both a viewing guide during the video and an analysis of how the adaptations of the icefish might help treat...

How do wild animals adapt to our urban expansion? An interesting video lesson describes different adaptation strategies of common species. The narrator includes a discussion of the changes in DNA.

The human carbon footprint may be larger than anyone thought. It is estimated that one million species are at risk of going extinct due to human impact on the environment. An installment from the large It's Okay to be Smart series...

Do predators look for different things in different seasons? The quick interactive shows how some species survive longer in one season than another based on the conditions. The challenge questions encourage pupils to demonstrate that...

Humans aren't the only species to build structures with air conditioning—we weren't even the first! The video explains how a variety of species that live under and above ground design their structures to allow for air circulation. It...

Emperor penguins keep warm at sub-zero Arctic temperatures. How do they do it? Think of the energy generated during a sporting event wave of the crowd, and you will be getting warmer! This short clip shows that tiny, wave-like movement...

Just what exactly is sickle cell disease? A short, animated video explains how the cell adaption works, how inheriting the sickle cell trait can be an advantage in malaria-prone areas, and how sickle cell disease can be deadly.

Amaze the class with the creative adaptations species employ to trick predators. An online interactive lesson introduces learners to six different species with unique adaptations. Each species highlights a different adaptation and its...