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PRIMATE CLASSIFICATION: Evolution, Cladograms,
Students transfer examples (names) of primates from their location in an outline hierarchy of primate groups into a set of nested boxes reflecting that same hierarchy. A cladogram can then be drawn illustrating how these groups are...
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Salon Simulation
Students examine the role of the 'Salon'. In this historic communications instructional activity, students role play and use discussion to enhance their understanding of the role the Salon played in 18th century Europe. Students will...
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The Cytochrome-C Lab
Students examine a method biologists use to try to determine relationships. They examine how amino acid sequences have been determined for a number of proteins, and how scientists can make inferences about DNA based on the amino acid...
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Making Cladograms
Students 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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Press Conference on Hurricane Georges
Students reinforce oral communication skills and organize a "press conference" on Hurricane Georges. They demonstrate their comprehension of the following enduring understanding: Where we live influences how we live. No matter where we...
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Getting Thirsty?
Learners explore the concept of drought and its significance as a natural hazard. In this drought lesson plan, students complete 13 questions on an "Introduction to Drought as an Ecosystem Stressor" worksheet and discuss the responses as...
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Ethics on the Job
Students examine ethics in the workplace. In this Career and leadership lesson, students will pair up to discuss various issues surrounding workplace ethics. This lesson includes 3 different activities, and assessment and necessary...
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Theory, Theory, Who's got the theory?
Students analyze 5 separate theories of evolution in order to help them explain the different meanings of theory, how human values influence science, and that the scientific view of the origin of life does not involve supernatural forces.
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The Chips Are Down: A Natural Selection Simulation
Students, in teams, use different colored paper chips to represent prey and a piece of fabric as the environment.
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The Selection and Variation in the Egyptian Origami Bird
Students participate in a contrived natural selection simulation in which they build and modify simple paper airplanes. They study divergent and convergent evolution and how it is isolated in sub-populations.
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Oil and the Environment
Students present information regarding oil and how it affects the environment. In this environmental awareness instructional activity, students work in groups to write a paper, create a PowerPoint, and put together a poster about their...
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WiTricity Explained
Students explain how electricity is transferred from source to load without actual wires connecting the two. In this physics lesson, students explore how wireless electricity was discovered. They cite practical applications of this...
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VARVES: Dating Sedimentary Strata: Geology, Paleontological Patterns
Young scholars count the number of varves (annual layers of sediment) in shale billets, taken from the Green River Formation in Wyoming. The count is then extended to reflect the entire 260 meters of sediments where the billets originated.
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Becoming Whales: Experiencing Discoveries of
Students experience, through a "dig," the historical discovery of fossils which increasingly link whales to earlier land-dwelling mammals. They encounter the intermediate forms which show changes that lead to the modern whale.
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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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OF SUNSETS, SOULS AND SENSES: Science, Scientific Methods, Natural and Supernatural
Students explore the realm and limits of science. Engages students to give examples of topics that can be studied by science, and those that cannot. This also takes a examine descriptive terms, which reflect the true nature of modern...
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The Great Fossil Find - Reconstructing the Pieces
Students go on an imaginary fossil hunt. They follow a script read by the teacher, students "find" (remove from envelope) paper "fossils" of some unknown creature. They attempt to reconstruct fossil pieces into an animal.
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The Checks Lab
Learners, in teams, have an envelope containing a series of bank checks. A few are removed at a time, and the team attempts to construct a plausible scenario which involves those checks.
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Natural Selection.... a Cumulative Process... it's in the cards!
Learners working in pairs attempt to produce a full sequence of 13 cards of one suit (ace - to king). This must be done by shuffling the suit of cards for each round, then checking the cards.
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Mildred Taylor: Understanding the Author of "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry"
Young scholars complete various activities related to the analysis of the novel "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry." They create a collage of words and images of what it was like to live in the South in the 1930's, conduct Internet research,...
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Eye On the Environment Essay
High schoolers analyze the impact of human activity (e.g., population density, pollution) to a country where the target language is spoken. They prepare a three paragraph essay and describe the impact of pollution on the environment...
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History In The Making
Students visit Colonial America in a Time Machine to discover the process that a citizen today must follow in order to make or change a law. Students research the Colonial Era in their Time Machines. Students encounter various government...
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Jazz it Up!
Students research the history and contributions of Jazz in their local environments. They then design and create a wide variety of presentations to share with the class using as many mediums as possible.
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Cartoons for the Classroom: Censorship, Silencing an Anti-War Voice
In this primary source analysis worksheet, students analyze political cartoons with anti-war messages and respond to 5 talking point questions.