| Lesson Title (Description) | Grade Level | Lesson Type |
A Long Time
The teacher puts up a timeline that shows students' age relative to geologic time. |
K-2 |
Classroom activity |
Forming Fake Fossils
Students make fake fossils by using clay and leaves or shells. |
K-2 |
Classroom activity |
Adventures at Dry Creek
In this interactive web-based module students conduct a simulated field study at a fossil dig in Montana. |
6-8 |
Web 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 |
Dino-Data
Students are presented with a set of data about dinosaurs and are asked to make hypotheses about what the data can tell us. |
6-8 |
Classroom activity |
Getting into the Fossil Record
In this interactive module students are introduced to fossils and the fossilization process by examining how fossils are formed and the factors that promote or prevent fossilization. |
6-8 |
Web activity |
Interactive investigation: The arthropod story
This interactive investigation delves into the amazing world of the arthropods and examines their success and their evolutionary constraints. |
6-8 |
Web activity |
Interpreting the Tracks
Students discover the relationships among foot length, leg length, stride length and speed in bipedal animals that provide clues about dinosaur speed. |
6-8 |
Classroom activity |
Lines of evidence: The science of evolution
The theory of evolution is broadly accepted by scientists — and for good reason! Learn about the diverse and numerous lines of evidence that support the theory of evolution. |
6-8 |
Tutorial |
Stories from the Fossil Record
This web-based module provides students with a basic understanding of how fossils can be used to interpret the past. |
6-8 |
Web activity |
Ancient fossils and modern climate change: The work of Jennifer McElwain
Wondering how global warming will affect our planet? Scientist Jennifer McElwain studies the fossil record in order to learn more about how global warming has affected life on Earth in the past and how it might affect life on Earth in the future. |
9-12 |
Article |
Darwin's "extreme" imperfection?
Darwin used the words "extreme imperfection" to describe the gappy nature of the fossil record - but is this really such a problem? This article delves into the topic of transitional fossils and explores what we have learned about them since Darwin's time.
This article appears at SpringerLink. |
9-12 |
Article |
Evo in the news: More than morphology
This news brief, from August 2006, describes recent research on T. rex, with a special focus on how paleontologists move beyond the shape of the animal's bones to learn about aspects of its life that don't fossilize very well: its physiology, sensory abilities, and population dynamics. |
9-12 |
Article |
Evo in the news: What has the head of a crocodile and the gills of a fish?
This news brief, from May 2006, reviews what is likely to be the most important fossil find of the year: Tiktaalik helps us understand how our own ancestors crawled out of the water and began to walk on dry land. |
9-12 |
Article |
Evo in the news: When it comes to evolution, headlines often get it wrong
Newly discovered fossils are prompting some scientists to consider a minor revision of the relationships shown on the human family tree. This news brief from September 2007 clarifies the occasionally misleading news coverage of the story. |
9-12 |
Article |
Evo in the news: Where species come from
Lush tropical ecosystems house many times more species than temperate or Arctic regions. This news brief from November 2006 discusses the evolutionary explanation for this diversity trend and reveals why threats to tropical ecosystems may threaten diversity on a global scale. |
9-12 |
Article |
Fossil and Migration Patterns in Early Hominids
Students plot the distribution of major hominid taxa on a world map to hypothesize about the origin and movement of prehuman ancestors. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
How to survive a mass extinction: The work of David Jablonski
Through detailed analysis of patterns in the fossil record, scientist David Jablonski reconstructs the rules that helped dictate who lived and died in past mass extinctions. This research profile describes his surprising discoveries and their disturbing implications for the biodiversity crisis today. |
9-12 |
Article |
Interactive investigation: The arthropod story
This interactive investigation delves into the amazing world of the arthropods and examines their success and their evolutionary constraints. |
9-12 |
Web activity |
It's All in Your Head: An Investigation of Human Ancestry
Students describe, measure and compare cranial casts from contemporary apes, modern humans, and fossil hominids to discover some of the similarities and differences between these forms and to see the pattern leading to modern humans. |
9-12 |
Classroom activity |
Lines of evidence: The science of evolution
The theory of evolution is broadly accepted by scientists — and for good reason! Learn about the diverse and numerous lines of evidence that support the theory of evolution. |
9-12 |
Tutorial |
Stories from the Fossil Record
This web-based module provides students with a basic understanding of how fossils can be used to interpret the past. |
9-12 |
Web activity |
The Evolution of Flight in Birds
This interactive module examines evidence from the fossil record, behavior, biomechanics and cladistic analysis to interpret the sequence of events that led to flight in the dinosaur lineage. |
9-12 |
Web activity |
The genes that lie beneath: The work of Leslea Hlusko
Evolutionary biologist Leslea Hlusko’s research takes her from the deserts of Ethiopia, where she hunts for hominid and primate fossils, to a baboon colony in San Antonio where she takes thousands of measurements of the primates' imposing canines. This research profile describes how the two projects are linked by a hunt for genetic variation, a key component of natural selection. |
9-12 |
Article |
The Monterey Pine through geologic time
Understanding the evolutionary history of the Monterey Pine may help us conserve this species. |
9-12 |
Article |
