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Resource library Teaching materials Evolution 101

Lesson summary for:
Discovering the great tree of life

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Overview:
This short video introduces basic concepts in phylogenetics and provides a model to help understand lineage-splitting.
This resource is available from the Peabody Museum of Natural History

Author/Source:
Peabody Museum of Natural History

Grade level:
6-8

Time:
10 minutes

Teaching tips:
This video provides a brief and intriguing introduction to phylogenetics. It would make a good opener for a unit in which students learn more about evolutionary trees and work with phylogenies.

Concepts:

  • Through billions of years of evolution, life forms have continued to diversify in a branching pattern, from single-celled ancestors to the diversity of life on Earth today.

  • Present-day life forms are descended from past life forms; all life is related.

  • Scientists test their ideas using multiple lines of evidence.

  • Evolutionary relationships may be represented by branching trees (i.e. phylogenies or cladograms).

  • Scientists use multiple research methods (experiments, observations, comparisons, and modeling) to collect evidence.

  • Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable.

  • Science is a human endeavor.

Teacher background:

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