Understanding Evolution

Your one-stop source for information on evolution

Understanding Evolution

Teaching Resources

Home → Teach Evolution → Lessons and Teaching Tools → Teaching Resources Database → Understanding evolutionary history: An introduction to tree thinking

Understanding evolutionary history: An introduction to tree thinking

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • Laura Novick, Kefyn Catley, and Emily Schreiber

Resource type:

  • Tutorial

Time: 30 min - 1 hour

Overview

This pamphlet with self-quizzes provides students with a self-paced tutorial in tree thinking and corrects many common misconceptions about phylogenetic trees.

Go to this resource »

simple evolutionary tree
  • [History of life: Grades 13-16] Present-day species evolved from earlier species; the relatedness of organisms is the result of common ancestry.
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] Evolutionary trees (i.e., phylogenies or cladograms) portray hypotheses about evolutionary relationships.

There are no NGSS/DCI concepts currently linked to this resource.

Students can be assigned this pamphlet as homework. If desired, instructors can collect the "Practice What You've Learned" for assessment. An in-class extension could involve holding a think-pair-share activity with additional similar questions in the next class period.