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 | A Strange Fish Indeed: The "Discovery" of a Living Fossil
Through a series of fictionalized diary entries, this case recounts the 1939 discovery by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (and identification by J.L.B. Smith) of a living coelacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for 70 million years.
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 | A Survey About Science
Students conduct a survey about the nature of science, laws, theories, hypotheses, scientists, and evolution.
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 | Adaptation to altitude
In this set of sequenced lessons, students learn how to devise an experiment to test the difference between acclimation and adaptation; investigate how scientific arguments show support for natural selection in Tibetans; design an investigation using a simulation based on the Hardy-Weinberg principle to explore mechanisms of evolution; and devise a test for whether other groups of people have adapted to living at high altitudes.
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 | An antipodal mystery
The discovery of the platypus had the scientific world in an uproar with its mammal-like and bird-like features. How was one to classify the platypus? This case study uses this issue to model the scientific process, with scientists arguing, debating, collecting more evidence, and revising their opinions as new data become available.
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 | Artificially Selecting Dogs
Students learn how artificial selection can be used to develop new dog breeds with characteristics that make the dogs capable of performing a desirable task.
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 | Breeding Bunnies
Students simulate breeding bunnies to show the impact that genetics can have on the evolution of a population of organisms.
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 | DNA to Darwin: Elaiosomes and seed dispersal by ants
In this activity, students build a phylogenetic tree of plants. From the dated tree, students infer when elaiosomes (a plant structure) arose and use this information to examine hypotheses about possible reasons for the evolution of elaiosomes.
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 | DNA to Darwin: Evolution of colour vision in primates
Students explore the molecular basis and evolutionary origin of trichromatic (red/green/blue) color vision in humans and our close evolutionary relatives using nucleic acid sequences of opsins, key proteins involved in the process.
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 | DNA to Darwin: Lactose tolerance
Students analyze genetic data to discover which genetic variants are associated with lactose tolerance in different populations. A statistical test (chi-squared) is used to work out whether specific genetic changes have significant effects on lactase persistence.
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 | DNA to Darwin: Malaria and the human genome
In this case study, students investigate the origin and action of mutations that are thought to have arisen in human populations in response to selection pressure from malaria.
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 | DNA to Darwin: Superbugs - choosing our enemies
In this case study, students compare the genomes of MRSA and its genetic cousin MSSA to locate DNA differences and mobile elements that could be expected to improve the bacterium’s resistance to antibiotics and its ability to cause disease.
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 | DNA to Darwin: The evolution of taste receptors
Students investigate the evolution of taste receptors by using protein sequence data to generate a phylogenetic tree of sweet, umami and bitter taste receptors from six animal species. In a second, more advanced activity, the evolution of bitter taste receptors by gene duplication is studied using DNA sequence data. The unusual case of the giant panda, which has lost the ability to taste meaty flavours, is also introduced.
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 | DNA to Darwin: Woolly mammoths and their relatives
In this case study, the evolutionary relationship of the extinct Woolly mammoth to modern elephants and other species is investigated. Complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences are used for this purpose.
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 | Evaluating Evolutionary Explanations
Students use what they know about evolution and medicine to review an article written for a school publication. The task is to identify errors, explain the incorrect statements, and correct the information. They then explain the process of natural selection by creating a labeled illustration using one of the examples from an earlier lesson.
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 | Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance
Students learn why evolution is at the heart of a world health threat by investigating the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance in such menacing diseases as tuberculosis.
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 | Evolution of human skin color
Students examine evidence for the relationship between UV and melanin in other animals; investigate the genetic basis for constitutive skin color humans; learn to test for natural selection in mouse fur color; investigate how interactions between UV and skin color in humans can affect fitness; and explore data on migrations and gene frequency to show convergent evolution of skin color.
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 | Evolutionary processes and patterns inform medicine
In this activity, students use data and the principles of natural selection to explain the relatively high frequency of alpha-thalassemia in certain populations. They also learn how comparisons of genetic sequences help researchers studying cleft lip and palate, as well as how natural selection has conserved the genetic sequences responsible for these defects.
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 | Gene switches
This lesson explains how genetic switches function and their role in the process of evolution through the use of clips from the HHMI DVD, Evolution: Constant Change and Common Threads, and the construction of a model. This activity can be done as a demonstration, a student inquiry activity, or a combination of the two.
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 | Great Fossil Find
Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt and hypothesize as to the identity of the creature they discover. Students revise their hypotheses as new evidence is "found."
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 | Hominid Cranium Comparison (The "Skulls" Lab)
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.
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 | 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?
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 | Molecular genetics of color mutations in rock pocket mice
This lesson requires students to transcribe and translate portions of the wild-type and mutant rock pocket mouse Mc1r genes and compare sequences to identify the locations and types of mutations responsible for the coat color variation described in a short film.
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 | Natural selection and evolution of rock pocket mouse populations
This lesson serves as an extension to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute short film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation. It provides an opportunity for students to analyze amino acid data and draw conclusions about the evolution of coat-color phenotypes in the rock pocket mouse.
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 | Nature or nurture? Heritability in the classroom
From intelligence to laziness, artistic talent to how likely you are to become bald, people want to know, and debate about, whether traits are passed down from parents (“nature”) or affected by environment (“nurture”). In reality, the question is not “nature or nurture”, but to what extent each affects traits. In this exercise, students will learn about the importance of nature and nurture in determining phenotypic differences among individuals by collecting data on themselves and their parents to estimate heritability. In order for natural selection to act on a character, variations in that character must be heritable.
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 | Not Just a Theory
Students engage in an activity that clarifies the scientific meaning of the term theory.
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 | Population genetics, selection, and evolution
This hands-on activity, used in conjunction with a short film, teaches students about population genetics, the Hardy-Weinberg principle, and how natural selection alters the frequency distribution of heritable traits. It
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 | The Checks Lab
Students construct plausible scenarios using bank checks to learn how human values and biases influence observation and interpretation.
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 | The Meaning of Genetic Variation
Students investigate variation in the beta globin gene by identifying base
changes that do and do not alter function, and by using several internet-based resources to consider the significance in different environments of the base change associated with sickle cell disease.
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 | The Missing Link
The setting for this case study is a paleontological dig in East Africa, where an undergraduate student has unearthed part of what appears to be an ancestral human skull. Students read the story and then examine a number of primate skulls. They are asked to build a phylogeny based on their observations.
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 | 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.
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 | Two- and ten-minute trees
Use these quick and simple classroom activities to better develop your students' tree-thinking skills. Each takes just a few minutes and helps reinforce key ideas about tree reading and common ancestry.
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 | Using evolution to understand influenza
This lesson is driven by the question: Why is a new flu vaccine needed every few years? Students answer this question and gather other information about evolution and influenza as they create an outline of a brochure for a biotechnology company.
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 | Using pipe cleaners to bring the Tree of Life to life
Students build a phylogenetic tree from pipe cleaners that allows them to rotate branches, compare topologies, map complete lineages, identify informative phylogenetic features, and examine the effects of superficial structural changes on the tree.
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 | Why Sex is Good
This case study is based on a 2005 journal article that deals with the issue of sexual vs. asexual reproduction and their relative merits—a question that has bedeviled biologists for more than a century. The article serves as the final stage of this case focusing on why sex is useful (at least in some circumstances).
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| A Strange Fish Indeed: The "Discovery" of a Living Fossil
Through a series of fictionalized diary entries, this case recounts the 1939 discovery by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (and identification by J.L.B. Smith) of a living coelacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for 70 million years.
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| A Survey About Science
Students conduct a survey about the nature of science, laws, theories, hypotheses, scientists, and evolution.
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| Adaptation to altitude
In this set of sequenced lessons, students learn how to devise an experiment to test the difference between acclimation and adaptation; investigate how scientific arguments show support for natural selection in Tibetans; design an investigation using a simulation based on the Hardy-Weinberg principle to explore mechanisms of evolution; and devise a test for whether other groups of people have adapted to living at high altitudes.
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 | Alike but Not the Same
Students conduct a classwide inventory of human traits, construct histograms of the data they collect, and play a brief game that introduces students to major concepts related to human genetic variation and the notion of each individual's uniqueness.
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| An antipodal mystery
The discovery of the platypus had the scientific world in an uproar with its mammal-like and bird-like features. How was one to classify the platypus? This case study uses this issue to model the scientific process, with scientists arguing, debating, collecting more evidence, and revising their opinions as new data become available.
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 | Ancient Farmers of the Amazon
In this activity, students find out about research being conducted on Amazon leafcutter ants. They also watch video segments to make their own virtual field observations and write their own research proposals.
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| Artificially Selecting Dogs
Students learn how artificial selection can be used to develop new dog breeds with characteristics that make the dogs capable of performing a desirable task.
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| Breeding Bunnies
Students simulate breeding bunnies to show the impact that genetics can have on the evolution of a population of organisms.
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 | Clipbirds
Students learn about variation, reproductive isolation, natural selection, and adaptation through this version of the bird beak activity.
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| DNA to Darwin: Woolly mammoths and their relatives
In this case study, the evolutionary relationship of the extinct Woolly mammoth to modern elephants and other species is investigated. Complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences are used for this purpose.
|
|
| Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance
Students learn why evolution is at the heart of a world health threat by investigating the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance in such menacing diseases as tuberculosis.
|
|
| Evolution of human skin color
Students examine evidence for the relationship between UV and melanin in other animals; investigate the genetic basis for constitutive skin color humans; learn to test for natural selection in mouse fur color; investigate how interactions between UV and skin color in humans can affect fitness; and explore data on migrations and gene frequency to show convergent evolution of skin color.
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 | Exploring Variation and Heritability
Students explore the natural variations present in a variety of organisms by examining sunflower seeds and Wisconsin Fast Plants™ to consider the role of heredity in natural selection.
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| Great Fossil Find
Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt and hypothesize as to the identity of the creature they discover. Students revise their hypotheses as new evidence is "found."
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| Hominid Cranium Comparison (The "Skulls" Lab)
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.
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| 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?
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 | Making 3D phylogenetic trees with mobiles
Students create three-dimensional trees in the form of mobiles so that the branching nodes pivot. Students can manipulate the mobile to see the relationships more clearly and combat common misconceptions about trees.
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 | Making Cladograms
This lesson introduces students to the building of cladograms as evolutionary trees, showing how shared derived characters can be used to reveal degrees of relationship.
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 | Mystery Meat
In this lesson students follow the steps of scientists Steve Palumbi (Stanford University) and Scott Baker (University of Oregon), who used DNA data (“Barcoding”) to reveal the species identifications of kujira (whale meat) from foreign markets. Their study used DNA data to identify unknown organisms in order to investigate whether whales are being illegally hunted and sold as meat. By going through the lesson, students practice various aspects of the process of science by asking scientific questions, collecting and analyzing data, comparing their results with those of the real researchers, and finally determining possible next steps.
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| Not Just a Theory
Students engage in an activity that clarifies the scientific meaning of the term theory.
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 | Origami Birds
Students build and evolve and modify paper-and-straw "birds" to simulate natural selection acting on random mutations.
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 | Predicting evolutionary relationships
Students compare the sequence of amino acids in a gene shared between humans and six other organisms and infer evolutionary relationships among the species.
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 | Testing a hypothesis
Students watch a short film about natural selection in humans and answer questions on a worksheet that reinforce the evolutionary story behind malaria and sickle cell anemia prevalence.
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| The Checks Lab
Students construct plausible scenarios using bank checks to learn how human values and biases influence observation and interpretation.
|
|
| The Meaning of Genetic Variation
Students investigate variation in the beta globin gene by identifying base
changes that do and do not alter function, and by using several internet-based resources to consider the significance in different environments of the base change associated with sickle cell disease.
|
|
| 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.
|
|
| Two- and ten-minute trees
Use these quick and simple classroom activities to better develop your students' tree-thinking skills. Each takes just a few minutes and helps reinforce key ideas about tree reading and common ancestry.
|
|
| Using pipe cleaners to bring the Tree of Life to life
Students build a phylogenetic tree from pipe cleaners that allows them to rotate branches, compare topologies, map complete lineages, identify informative phylogenetic features, and examine the effects of superficial structural changes on the tree.
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 | Variations in the clam species Clamys sweetus
This series of hands-on activities complements the HHMI DVD Evolution: Constant Change and Common Threads and has been designed to engage students in thinking about the mechanism of natural selection by encouraging them to formulate questions that can be answered through scientific investigation, data collection, and pattern recognition.
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 | Viruses and Host Evolution
Students learn about natural selection in rabbits by observing the effects of a virus on the Australian rabbit population.
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 | Xenosmilus
Students play the roles of paleontologists on a dig. They "unearth" a few fossils at a time and attempt to reconstruct the animal the fossils represent.
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| Artificially Selecting Dogs
Students learn how artificial selection can be used to develop new dog breeds with characteristics that make the dogs capable of performing a desirable task.
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 | Battle of the Beaks
Students learn about adaptive advantage, based on beak function, by simulating birds competing for various foods.
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 | Big Beans, Little Beans
Students measure and note the variation in the lengths of lima beans. Students then compare the growth rate of different sized beans.
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 | Born to Run: Artificial Selection Lab
Students are introduced to the field of experimental evolution by evaluating skeletal changes in mice that have been artificially selected over many generations for the behavioral trait of voluntary exercise wheel running
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 | Climate Analysis Using Planktonic Foraminifera
Students manipulate, plot, and interpret data on the occurence of a particular species of foraminifera in the fossil record in order to infer changes in climate during the last 160,000 years.
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| Clipbirds
Students learn about variation, reproductive isolation, natural selection, and adaptation through this version of the bird beak activity.
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 | 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.
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 | Dogs and Turnips
In this lesson students attempt to assemble a meaningful sentence by successively turning over cards with words on them. The point is made that we change our ideas of what a story may be as we gather more information.
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| Great Fossil Find
Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt and hypothesize as to the identity of the creature they discover. Students revise their hypotheses as new evidence is "found."
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 | How Much is a Billion
In this activity, students get a sense of how big a billion really is, which is necessary in order to understand deep time.
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 | 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.
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 | Sequencing Time
Students assign relative and numerical times to events in their lives to understand how scientists developed the Geologic Time Scale.
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| Two- and ten-minute trees
Use these quick and simple classroom activities to better develop your students' tree-thinking skills. Each takes just a few minutes and helps reinforce key ideas about tree reading and common ancestry.
|
|
| Using pipe cleaners to bring the Tree of Life to life
Students build a phylogenetic tree from pipe cleaners that allows them to rotate branches, compare topologies, map complete lineages, identify informative phylogenetic features, and examine the effects of superficial structural changes on the tree.
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 | What Came First?
Students sequence actual events in the history of life on Earth and place them on a large timeline.
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 | Who's on First? Relative Dating
Students sequence familiar items and then do a similar sequencing activity using fossil pictures to learn how paleontologists use fossils to give relative dates to rock strata.
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| Xenosmilus
Students play the roles of paleontologists on a dig. They "unearth" a few fossils at a time and attempt to reconstruct the animal the fossils represent.
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 | 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.
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 | Diversity Walk
In this lesson, students take a walk around the school grounds to discover the diversity of life that exists there.
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| How Much is a Billion
In this activity, students get a sense of how big a billion really is, which is necessary in order to understand deep time.
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 | It's All Relative
In this lesson, students find pictures of living things and arrange them in collages, categorizing them according to which they think are more closely related to which.
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 | Mealworm Metamorphosis
Students will observe offspring (mealworms) that do not initially resemble their parent organism (darkling beetles) throughout complete metamorphosis. Students will also create and maintain an appropriate habitat for the mealworms.
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 | Observing Brine Shrimp
Students observe brine shrimp eggs, create an appropriate environment for their survival, and observe their growth.
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 | Preying on Beans
Students act as predators searching for prey (beans) in two different settings to demonstrate the processes of adaptation and selection.
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 | Reconstruction
Students reconstruct sentences by reassembling the words that have been cut apart.
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 | Tennis Shoe Detectives
Students make observations, examine data, and form hypotheses about a set of footprints and what they can tell us.
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| Two- and ten-minute trees
Use these quick and simple classroom activities to better develop your students' tree-thinking skills. Each takes just a few minutes and helps reinforce key ideas about tree reading and common ancestry.
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| Xenosmilus
Students play the roles of paleontologists on a dig. They "unearth" a few fossils at a time and attempt to reconstruct the animal the fossils represent.
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 | A Long Time
The teacher puts up a timeline that shows students' age relative to geologic time.
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 | Can You Match Them?
Students find matching sounds by shaking containers and listening to sounds generated.
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 | Can You Tell by Touch?
Students feel inside a bag and use only their sense of touch to describe and identify one of the objects inside the bag.
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 | Differences
Students observe and compare a variety of living things and pictures of living things to observe their similarities and differences.
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 | Diversity
Students learn that there are many forms of living things by going for a walk and by observing living things in the classroom.
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 | Extinction
Students are shown illustrations of living things and extinct life forms, which they compare and categorize as living or extinct.
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 | Form and Function
Students select a part of a plant or animal and indicate how the part supports the needs of the living thing.
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 | In the Dark
Students, in pairs, go on a trust walk to use senses other than vision.
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 | Sniff and Guess
Students use their sense of smell to identify the contents of Mystery Odor Cans.
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 | Sounds Around
Students use their sense of hearing outdoors to discover things in their world.
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 | Variation
Students look at populations of living things and identify variations in physical features.
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 | What Food Is It?
Students close their eyes and taste foods without using their sense of sight.
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