Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Using DNA to Explore Lizard Phylogeny
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...
PBS
NOVA Evolution Lab Lesson Plan
It doesn't matter if you look on land, in the air, underground, or in water—evolution is everywhere. Scholars complete worksheets with multiple question types as they progress through six online missions creating phylogenic trees.
Curated OER
Phylogeny
Here is an unusual collection of slides. The first, which is upside down, is the phylogeny of fish. Next comes an article about invasive lampreys in the Great Lakes area. The third slide shows the life cycle of sea lampreys. A reptilian...
Curated OER
Island Biogeography and Evolution
Students use this activity as a logic problem that is based on real organisms and real data. The problem is to develop phylogenies for seven related populations of lizards living on the Canary Islands. Three phylogenetic charts are...
Curated OER
Island Biogeography and Evolution: Solving a Phylogenetic Puzzle With Molecular Genetics
Students 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.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Using DNA to Explore Lizard Phylogeny
On the Caribbean islands, lizards expanded into different niches instead of competing for resources. Scholars discuss and learn from experts in a video how scientists prove the theory. They build phylogenetic trees based on appearances...
Curated OER
Island Biogeography and Evolution
Students develop likely phylogenies for seven related populations of lizards living on the Canary Islands using real data. They organize charts, and record the data for geography, geology, morphology, and molecular genetics.
Curated OER
Applied Evolution: How Will We Get There from Here?
Young scholars 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...
Curated OER
All in the Family: Calculating Cousins
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...
Curated OER
Embryology as Evidence of Evolution
Students observe the two major developmental pathways (protostome and deuterostome). They analyze data regarding differences in nucleotide sequences and construct a phylogenetic tree. They observe the similar evolutionary history shared...
Curated OER
Tree of Life
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...
Field Museum
The Case of Darwin's Finches
One of the most striking pieces of evidence for Darwin's Evolution of Species was his observations of finches and how their beaks differed from island to island, depending on their primary food sources. So what would happen to the theory...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
The Cytochrome-C Lab
Young scholars 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...
Curated OER
Species Diversity and Phylogeny
Students explore the classification system of organisms: taxonomy. They examine prepared slides of Protozoans and record information on a Taxonomy Recording Sheet. Two additional classifying activities are also included in this lesson...
Curated OER
What did T. rex taste like?
Students examine the three domains of life and explain that all living things share a common ancestor. In this paleontology lesson students are introduced to the process of illustrating evolutionary relationships.
Curated OER
An Automobile Phylogenetic Tree
High schoolers construct a phylogenetic tree for various automobiles and trucks after considering important characteristics of these "organisms". They work in small groups to construct the trees and complete a set of questions then they...
McGraw Hill
Arthropods
Are spiders related to crabs? Study the order of arthropods with a reading selection about animal diversity. It provides details about each class within the order, as well as vivid pictures and explanatory charts.
Rice University
Biology for AP® Courses
An eight-unit electronic textbook provides a guide to AP® Biology. Each of the 28 chapters include an introduction, multiple lessons, a summary, review questions, and test prep questions. Teachers see how each lesson connects to a big...
Curated OER
Comparing Fossils
Students explore early hominid evolution as they analyze bones that share characteristics of both apes and humans. Students compare and contrast key skeletal differences between chimpanzees and humans. In groups, they sort and group a...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Biodiversity and Evolutionary Trees
Compare what shells look like on the outside with what makes that happen on the inside. Scholars begin by sorting an various seashells by their physical characteristics into phylogenetic trees. They then conduct a DNA comparison of...
Curated OER
Anolis Lizards of the Greater Antilles
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...
Curated OER
Why Cladistics?
Learners explore how biological classification is intimately associated with evolution.
Curated OER
Vertebrate Dioramas
Students are able to describe the development of their chosen form of vertebrate life from the past to the present in a four to six page typed paper. They explain the use of phylogenetic tree. Students use the phylogenetic tree to...