Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Using DNA to Explore Lizard Phylogeny

For Teachers 6th - 12th
In a fun and interactive two-day lesson, learners sort anole lizard pictures by appearance. Next, they watch a video about the anoles and re-sort based on the information in the video. In addition to physical characteristics, budding...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Island Biogeography and Evolution: Solving a Phylogenetic Puzzle With Molecular Genetics

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers engage in solving a logic problem based on real organisms and real data. They develop phylogenies for seven related populations of lizards living on the Canary Islands.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

All in the Family: Calculating Cousins

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students view pictures of distant "cousins" to humans. They place them in order by their distance from humans. Students receive a packet of six pages featuring graphics and a cousins summary page. They work in groups to complete 5 cousin...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tree of Life

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed
Students study genetics and evolution. They evaluate a group of organisms and estimate their genetic relatedness. Then they use an online program to check the accuracy of their estimations and make a branching phylogenetic tree which...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Applied Evolution: How Will We Get There from Here?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils explore the basic process of natural selection and how people can manipulate that process today. The consequences of natural selection on daily life and the implications of evolutionary biology in basic and applied science is...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Vertebrate Dioramas

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students describe the development of their chosen form of vertebrate life from the past to the present in a four to six page paper. They explain the use of a phylogenetic tree, and use this to exemplify an organism's evolutionary change...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Anolis Lizards of the Greater Antilles

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students "take a trip" to the Greater Antilles to observethe Anolis lizards. They study the body structures and habitat of different species, then plot this data on a map to look for patterns in their distribution. From the patterns they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Studying Fossils

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Learners compare and contrast key skeletal differences between chimpanzees and humans: brain size, teeth, hand and thumb, trunk, pelvis, lower limb, foot and big toe. They then sort and group a set of mixed "fossil bones" of chimpanzee...