This is an interactive site which demonstrates diversity through the use of the fossil record. Specific groups of fossils are used to illustrate mass extinction and evolution. Full description.

This on-line project is part of the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) program. As they complete this series of lessons, students will use real-time data to solve a problem, study the correlation between earthquakes and tectonic plates, and determine whether or not there is a relationship between volcanoes and plate boundaries. Musical Plates has four Core Activities that ... Full description.

These procedures for creating a timeline from the Big Bang to the present include directions and images suitable for all major events in time, downloadable so they can be copied and made available to students to build. Scale is 1 mm = 1 million years. Users have the option of starting at the Big Bang or the beginning of our solar system. Full description.

In this lesson students will experience how geological and biological events have occurred in a clear sequence of vast but measured time. 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 leading to the present. This becomes a dramatic experience, involving body and mind, helping students ... Full description.

In this lesson, each student is given a block of wood and a screw (or nail), and is asked to put the screw into the block, without any tool (like a screwdriver or hammer). Their efforts, with varying success, lead to a discussion of contrivances, using various items and strategies as make-do (contrived) tools for which they were not intended, and an exploration of many examples of contrivances or ... Full description.

This introduction to the concept of biological complexity demystifies and debunks the argument of Paley that a complex watch is compelling evidence requiring a (complex) watchmaker (designer or creator). It employs a mathematical exercise to demonstrate this, involving a randomizing component (a die), and a simple mathematical rule (the non-random component), resulting in the repeated plotting of ... Full description.

This site allows students to interactively explore the answers to basic questions regarding fossils. It explains what we can learn from fossils and demonstrates how their characteristics can be used as clues to the past. Full description.

This is the teacher resource site for the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) program "Stories from the Fossil Record". It provides information to aide instructors in implementing the program in a classroom setting. Included are lesson plans, handouts, related activities, and background references. Also included are pre- and post-lesson assessments. Full description.

This educational module on fossil interpretation contains four interactive computer activities for students and a teacher's section with supporting lesson plans and assessments. Student interactive lessons based on fossil evidence include paleoecology, extinct species, geologic time, and biodiversity. Full description.

This collection of links connects to thirty two student activities or background sites that apply the study of fossils to student learning. Activities cover a wide range of topics including age dating, oil exploration, and climate change. It also contains four additional links to related websites. Full description.