Students will have the chance to see some strange and unusual dinosaurs they have never heard of when they can play with the cladogram. A cladogram is like a family tree. It's a way of organizing dinosaurs based on the unique characteristics they share, like a three-toed foot or a hole in the hip socket. In order to see the information the student will roll over a dinosaur's name to see its picture, ... 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.

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.

This historical background information discusses the myths associated with dinosaurs. The site contains links to sections entitled the Fossil Record, Life History and Ecology, Systematics, and More on Morphology. Additional links lead to special exhibits and detailed information about dinosaurs as well as sources for further reading. Full description.

This educator's guide focuses on parts of the Solar System that do not get much attention: asteroid, meteoroids, and comets. By picking at least one activity from each section, students gain a breadth of understanding about mission planning and execution couched in a real world context of an actual mission, Stardust, which is studying small bodies in the Solar System until 2006. Topics include: comet ... Full description.

This site describes the skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex at the University of California Museum of Paleontology and includes active links for more information. The first, Meet T. rex gives general information about the animal. The second link, Building T. rex, includes pictures of the actual construction of the skeleton. The third link contains children's art depicting various dinosaurs. The final link ... Full description.

In this imaginary fossil hunt, students learn about the uncertainty of science and the fact that, as new evidence is revealed, ideas may change. As they follow a script read by the teacher, students find (remove from envelope) paper fossils of some unknown creature, a few at a time. Each time, they attempt to reconstruct the creature and each time their interpretation tends to change as new pieces ... Full description.

This lesson teaches students that traits are usually favored by natural selection only when they result in more reproductively successful offspring. Students go out onto the school lawn and play the role of birds, picking up toothpick stick worms which have been previously scattered in equal numbers of green-stained and unstained. Birds are chased away before the worm population drops too low. Back ... Full description.

This lesson includes a theory-evaluation activity. A set of five scenarios (theories for how diverse life came into existence on Earth) is divided evenly throughout the class, so each student is asked to evaluate one theory. Students then come together in groups of five, so that all theories are represented in each group, where they are compared and evaluated. Each group reports to the entire class ... Full description.

In this activity, students describe the positive effects that trees have on air quality and determine how to landscape a home with trees to decrease energy use. Students will draw a map of their yard or school site showing the location of trees and check a leaf of each tree for particulates. They will then make observations on several different days to determine which trees save energy and draw on ... Full description.