Out of Africa Wildlife Park
A Thematic Learning Guide to Lions
Written as an accompaniment to a field trip to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Arizona, this is an interdisciplinary, themed lesson on lions. Even if you cannot take your upper-elementary kids to this attraction, there are a few...
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Frog Dissection
Students explore the anatomy of frogs. They complete a frog dissection to complete an accompanying worksheet which includes questions, diagrams and pictures.
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Making Cladograms
Learners construct cladograms (evolutionary trees), showing how shared derived characters can be used to reveal degrees of relationship. They interpret and analyze cladograms, and determine where unclassified vertebrates would fit on a...
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Time Machine: Evolution, Geology
Students are taken on a simulated "voyage" backward in time, to the beginning of our planet. They "witness" that beginning, the origin of life, and a number of key events from then to the present.
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How Much is That Monkey in the Window?
Students investigate exotic pets and the ecological and personal risks involved in trading and owning such animals. They synthesize their knowledge by creating advertisements that promote the sale of exotic pets and picket signs that...
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Seed Dispersal
Students determine seed dispersal methods. In this life science lesson, students make predictions about how seeds might move, then look at seeds under micrographs or microscopes to analyze the seed coat and how this helps dispersal. ...
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Arsenic and Human Health
Ninth graders concentrate on arsenic poisoning as an example of the connections among health, geography, and geology as they develop a persuasive presentation about the dangers of arsenic in the drinking water, targeting a specific...
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Design and Construction of an Eco-House
Students are able to design, construct, evaluate and recommend materials for planned Eco-house to be built on campus. They investigate about good design and plan for construction. Students have a greater knowledge and appreciation of...
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Coral Bleaching: Making Our Oceans Whiter
Students study coral reefs and the controversy over coral bleaching. They role-play a debate over the issue and come up with a compromise to protect the reefs and the economies that depend on them.
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Biodiversity Study -- A Unit Study
Students sample a site with low human impact, one with moderate human impact, and a third with high human impact. Students chart the data for each site and then compare the sites and discuss.
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Studying Fossils: Hominoid Skull Comparison
Students collect data on the differences in Hominid skulls using acrylic casts of fossil skulls. They measure a series of structures on skulls from six different species then use the data to determine evolutionary relationships between...
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Human Body Systems
Students explore the systems that comprise the human body. For this human physiology lesson, students create a model of the human body and research a disease from a particular system. Students will then choose to either interview a...
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Investigative Case - Protistan Tales of Atlantic White Cedar Swamps
Students use this WebQuest to explore the vast diversity of microbes, especially those microbes of the Atlantic Cedar Swamps. They tell a story about the protests of the Atlantic Cedar Swamp in the form of anthropomorphism.
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Genetic Drift
Students use a mathematical simulation of genetic drift to answer questions about the factors that influence this evolutionary process. They run a series of simulations varying allele frequency and population size and then analyze their...
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Investigative Case: The Nancy Creek Challenge
Students examine a case study of fish kill in Nancy Creek and identify the environmental conditions that favor life in a fresh water ecosystem. They work in small groups to assess the situation and gather resources from various places in...
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Wait, They Can do it by Themselves?
Students recognize the concepts of evolution and natural selection as well as cladistics and phylogenetics. They observe the process of regeneration in a sea anemone to simulate asexual reproduction.
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Ecology and the St. Lawrence River
Ninth graders complete a unit of lessons on ecosystems, organism interactions, and energy flow. They create a key for known species of fish, diagram the movement of energy through an ecosystem, and create and present food chains and food...
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Natural Selection And Evolution
Students investigate the concept of evolution and how natural selection is used as an indicator that evolution has happened. They recognize the three effects it has on diversity and how adaptations can develop. Diversity is explained as...
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Biotech in a Bag
Learners carry out a series of experiments using self-locking plastic baggies. Each experiment demonstrates a phenomenon or principle of biotechnology.
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Supermarkets, Sustenance and Sustainability
Students investigate jungles and the people who depend upon them. In this sustainability lesson, students research wild life conservation and discover the importance of a jungle to Amazonian people. Students create a group presentation...
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Invertebrates
Students identify the characteristics common to all animals. In groups, they compare the characteristics between the animals and how they are divided. To end the lesson, they compare the eight phyla of invertebrates and review the...
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The Heart
Students identify the parts of the heart and the path blood flows through it. They practice using new vocabulary and labeling the parts of the heart. They examine the path of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood as well.
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Building a Dichotomous Key
Students analyze how a dichotomous key helps us explain and identify unknown organisms. They design and construct a dichotomous key, developing a list of three observable characteristics per organism.