Curated OER
You Say You Want an Evolution?
Students estimate the number of living organisms they might find in their local environment. After researching the types of organisms that existed during various geologic time periods, students describe how life forms have changed over...
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Hominoid Cranium Comparison
High schoolers describe, measure and compare cranial casts from contemporary apes (chimpanzees and gorillas, typically), modern humans and fossil "hominids" (erect and bipedal forms evolutionarily separated from apes).
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Dinosaur Detectives
Young scholars examine amphibian evolution by comparing fossils with a modern-day skeleton. They experience the scientific thought process of drawing conclusions from limited paleontological data. Student groups align the figures with...
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A Little Horse Sense
How have horses evolved over time? How do horse skulls reveal this evolution? How have the roles horses play changed over time? What kind of social structure do horse herds have? How should wild horse populations be managed? To find the...
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Human Evolution
Students make and use observations of Laetoli footprints to provide clues to life in the past. They collect and analyze data to study the relationship between foot length and body height.
LABScI
Taxonomy: Who is in My family?
Find similarities in seemingly unlike organisms. The second instructional activity in a series of 12 builds the concept of a taxonomy and explores the use of a dichotomous key. Learners begin in part one by attempting to group a set of...
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Becoming Human
For this evolution worksheet, students access a specific website and then answer questions about human evolution based on what they discovered at the website. This worksheet has 19 short answer questions and 3 essay questions.
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Walking Whales
Eighth graders explore the theory of evolution of whales. In this walking whales lesson students study a reading packet, divide into groups and respond to given questions.
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Student Guide: Evolution Videodisk from Videodiscovery
Students use this worksheet with the videodisk from Video discovery titled Evolution: Inquiries into Biology and Earth Science.Written because there is no computerized control program available, it is to be used with a standard videodisk...
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Where Should We Place Archaeopteryx?
Students classify Archaeopteryx using pictures of actual fossils and scientist representations of how the animal might have looked. They compare Archaeopteryx's characteristics to those of the five extant vertebrate groups to...
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Excavating the Past
Learners discover how palaeontologists conduct a dig for fossils and how they interpret the age of the fossils. In small groups, they prepare a "dig site" consisting of bones, rocks and soil layered in a cardboard box. They switch boxes...
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The Chemistry of Killer Coal
Students research chemical components of coal, as well as environmental health impacts of mining and burning coal. They discuss conservation of mass as it relates to combustion of organic compounds.
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Dinosaur Eggs Discovered! Unscrambling the Clues
Just a heads up: this lesson is based on a book, Dinosaur Eggs Discovered! Unscrambling the Clues. If you do not have or do not want to purchase the book, you may still find the other activities and worksheets useful in your earth...
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Studying Fossils
Students hypothesize dinosaur size and speed by looking at dinosaur track way or by measuring a dinosaur models water displacement. In addition, techniques to help students become familiar with the ways paleontologists study fossils can...
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Superbugs and Antibiotic Resistance
Students complete experiments on antibiotics and antimicrobials. In groups, they explain how antibiotics affect the evolution of microorganisms. They test various types of bacteria to discover how much resistance they have to antibiotics.
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Fossils-Where Should We Place Archaeopteryx?
Students explore an interactive computer activity that provides the opportunity to look at features of various groups of animals and determine where an extinct organism might be classified.
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Linkages Between Surface Temperature And Tropospheric Ozone
Students organize and analyze data regarding changes in tropospheric ozone and then hypothesize about the consequences of these changes.
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Who Was Charles Darwin?
Young scholars complete two activities to study Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. They read Darwin's journal from the voyage of the Beagle and look at the scientific ideas that influenced the development of his theory.
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Geologic Age
Young scholars investigate radioactivity as a tool for measuring geologic time and how geologists use this information to determine the absolute age of rocks or minerals.
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Climate Shifts
Eight slides of information related to shifts in the climate make up this presentation. The vocabulary and concepts displayed are geared toward high school meteorology learners. Content is not cohesive from slide to slide, but the...
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Why do we need Vitamin C in our diet? Or Why do we carry old inactive genes in our genome?
Students explore and explain how mutations in the DNA sequence of a gene may be silent or result in phenotypic change in an organism and in its offspring. They analyze how evolution and biodiversity are the result of genetic changes that...
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A Dog's Life
Students get a look into the life of dogs-from their origins and basic biology, through selective breeding, and into how dogs have become intricate parts of everyday life for many people worldwide.
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Dolphin Brains
Students listen to an interview with Lori Marino regarding the development of dolphin brains and read a summarizing text. They conduct further research and participate in class discussion.
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Life Has A History
In this biology worksheet, students identify and match various classes of species found today. Then they explain why biodiversity exists today on earth and define evolution. Students also describe who a paleontologist is and what they do.