Curated OER
Yearly Place Based theme
Students are awaken to their surroundings. They gain a greater access of how their city was formed. Students assess the human impact on the land. They comprehend the cultural diversity of the city.
Curated OER
Animals of Point Reyes
Seventh graders explore how disasters affect animals. For this animal habitats lesson students create an animal that will survive in Point Reyes habitats.
Curated OER
The Environment: Vocabulary
In this environment vocabulary learning exercise, students complete 12 multiple choice questions, then translate a set of "environment words."
Curated OER
The Coelacanth aka 'The Living Fossil Fish'
In this online quiz worksheet, students answer a set of multiple choice questions about the Coelacanth, or Living Fossil Fish. Page has a link to answers.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Are We Headed for a Sixth Mass Extinction
Activity in which students analyze the information on biodiversity and extinction presented in the article and answer questions for discussion, then develop policy to meet modern environmental challenges. Individual and small group work.
Other
Hvpm: Mass Extinctions
An overview of the mass extinctions throughout earth history. Each mass extinction has a link to its own page with a list of its possible causes and the species that were most affected.
University of Florida
Florida Museum of Natural History: History of the Endangered Species Act
The Florida Museum of Natural History offers a review of the rationale for and basic components of the law. There are sections about how one can become involved with the protection and restoration of endangered species.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hhmi: Biointeractive: The Making of Mass Extinctions
This interactive module explores the environmental factors and species involved in five major mass extinctions.
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara
Kids Do Ecology: Endangered Species and Conservation Biology
Find out about conservation biology as it relates to endangered and threatened species. Learn about the factors contributing to the loss of species and what efforts have helped bring some animals back form the brink of extinction.
Bagheera
Bagheera: Endangered Species
Bagheera provides an education site devoted to educating people about vanishing and extinct animals and their impact on the environment.
University of California
Ucmp: Island Biogeography and Evolution
This is a lesson designed by a biology teacher. In it, students use maps and evidence of island age, molecular genetics, morphology, and distance apart to determine how the islands came to be occupied by different species of lizards. It...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Extinction: Is It Inevitable?
Young scholars read the article "The Sixth Extinction" by Niles Eldredge on past mass extinctions and the current rate of loss of species. There is a choice of student activities which includes having students respond to discussion and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Extinction Prevention via Engineering
Species extinction is happening at an alarming rate according to scientists. In this lesson plan, learners are asked to consider why extinction is a problem that we should concern us. They are taught that destruction of habitat is the...
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Episd: Human Actions and the Sixth Mass Extinction
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Through studying the past, students will explore extinction patterns and their causes and consider ways to protect biodiversity across the globe.
Unite for Literacy
Unite for Literacy: Saving Animals From Extinction: The Black Rhinoceros
Learn some facts about the black rhinoceros, an endangered species, in this book. Includes audio narration in English and Spanish with text in English.
Unite for Literacy
Unite for Literacy: Saving Animals From Extinction: Where Is the Vaquita?
Learn some facts about the vaquita, a type of porpoise that is endangered. Book includes audio narration in English and Spanish with text in English.
Nature Canada
Nature Canada: Endangered Species: Horned Grebe
The horned grebe is an endangered bird in Canada. This page gives basic facts about this wetland bird, and describes efforts to save the species from extinction.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Life Science: Microevolution and Macroevolution
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Does evolution only happen gradually through small changes? Or is it possible that drastic environmental changes can cause new species to evolve? Or can both small...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Activity: Genetic and Ecosystem Biodiversity
In this activity, students will use their observation skills to find the physical variation in several individuals from one species.
American Institute of Biological Sciences
Action Bioscience: Biodiversity
This site from the American Institute of Biological Sciences contains articles on a wide array of issues related to species diversity and extinction. Many articles available in Spanish.
University of California
Ucmp: Life Has a History
This is a very good introduction to the role evolution plays in the development of biodiversity. These topics and extinction are explained with the use of colorful interactive pictures.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Modern Extinctions on Mainland North America
Since 1850 North America has lost three bird species--the Labrador Duck, Passenger Pigeon, and Carolina Parakeet--and the continued existence of another three is unlikely, namely the Eskimo Curlew, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and Bachman's...
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Life Science: Mass Extinctions
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] An organism goes extinct when all of the members of a species die out and no more members remain. Extinctions are part of natural selection. Species often go extinct...
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Biology: Human Actions and the Sixth Mass Extinction
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Describes how human actions are resulting in a sixth mass extinction.