| Lesson Title (Description) | Grade Level | Lesson Type |
Form and Function
Students select a part of a plant or animal and indicate how the part supports the needs of the living thing. |
K-2 |
Classroom activity |
Coping with Environmental Differences
Students will observe and conduct an experiment to see whether differences in salinity (the environment) have an affect on the hatching rate and survival of brine shrimp. |
3-5 |
Classroom activity |
Preying on Beans
Students act as predators searching for prey (beans) in two different settings to demonstrate the processes of adaptation and selection. |
3-5 |
Classroom activity |
Battle of the Beaks
Students learn about adaptive advantage, based on beak function, by simulating birds competing for various foods. |
6-8 |
Classroom activity |
Clipbirds
Students learn about variation, reproductive isolation, natural selection, and adaptation through this version of the bird beak activity. |
6-8 |
Classroom activity |
Crocs, Then and Now
This lesson has students investigate the geographical distributions, habitats, and other features of modern crocodilians and SuperCroc. Students consider what can be learned about one species by studying the other. |
6-8 |
Classroom activity |
Mantis shrimp shoulder their evolutionary baggage and bluff
Like all organisms, mantis shrimp carry baggage from their evolutionary history. Find out how this baggage has coaxed them into a deadly bluffing game. |
6-8 |
Article |
Adaptation: The case of penguins
The process of natural selection produces stunning adaptations. Learn about the history of this concept, while you explore the incredible adaptations that penguins have evolved, allowing them to survive and reproduce in a climate that reaches -60°C!
This article appears at Visionlearning. |
9-12 |
Article |
Biological warfare and the coevolutionary arms race
The rough-skinned newt looks harmless enought but is, in fact, packed full of one of the most potent neurotoxins known to man. Find out how an evolutionary arms race has pushed these mild-mannered critters to the extremes of toxicity and how evolutionary biologists have unraveled their fascinating story. |
9-12 |
Article |
Candy Dish Selection
Students find that selection occurs in a dish of mixed candies. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
Clipbirds
Students learn about variation, reproductive isolation, natural selection, and adaptation through this version of the bird beak activity. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
Evo in the news: Coping with climate change
This news brief from May 2009 explores the difference between phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary change in relation to the media's coverage of climate change. |
9-12 |
Article |
Interview: Geerat Vermeij on the fossil record
This interview with MacArthur Fellow and paleobiologist, Geerat Vermeij, covers much ground, including adaptations in the mollusks he studies, evolutionary arms races, punctuated equilibrium, extinctions, macroevolution, and the value of diversity. |
9-12 |
Interview with Scientist |
Investigating Natural Selection
Students experience one mechanism for evolution through a simulation that models the principles of natural selection and helps answer the question: How might biological change have occurred and been reinforced over time? |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
Mantis shrimp shoulder their evolutionary baggage and bluff
Like all organisms, mantis shrimp carry baggage from their evolutionary history. Find out how this baggage has coaxed them into a deadly bluffing game. |
9-12 |
Article |
Monarch/Viceroy Case
Students work in groups to develop a Darwinian explanation for the bright coloration of monarch and viceroy butterflies and the similarity in color patterns seen between the two species. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
Natural selection: The basics
Darwin's most famous idea, natural selection, explains much of the diversity of life. Learn how it works, explore examples, and find out how to avoid misconceptions.
This article is located within Evolution 101. |
9-12 |
Tutorial |
Origami Birds
Students build and evolve and modify paper-and-straw “birds” to simulate natural selection acting on random mutations. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
The Natural Selection Game
This is a board game that simulates natural selection. It is suitable for an introductory biology class and for more advanced classes where you could go into more detail on important principles such as the role of variation and mutation. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
Using Magnetotactic Bacteria to Study Natural Selection
In this lab students observe bacteria that are able to orient themselves using the Earth's magnetic field, demonstrating that living organisms possess incredible adaptations which enable them to survive. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
