In this lesson students compare differences in amino acids in the beta hemoglobin from representative primates, complete a matrix of those differences, and from these data, construct and interpret cladograms as they reflect relationships and timing of divergence. Full description.

This lesson plan is part of a high school course on astronomy, Newtonian mechanics and spaceflight and provides a closer look at the pole star and the neighboring constellations, especially the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia. One objective is for the student to know the constellations of the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia, and their use in finding the Pole Star. The student will also realize that other celestial ... Full description.

This lesson plan serves as an introduction to the ecliptic, the zodiac and the apparent motions of the Sun, Moon and planets across the sky. The objectives are to help the student know about the apparent motion of the Sun, Moon and planets across the sphere of fixed stars (celestial sphere) and understand that the reason all of these objects travel along very similar paths is that the solar system ... Full description.

In this lesson the ellipse is studied in polar coordinates (r,f), with the function cos(f). This places the origin point at a focus (more appropriate for planetary motion) and introduces the eccentricity e. It is also noted that planets actually orbit the center of gravity of the solar system and that distant planets may be detected by motions of their central star around the centers of gravity of ... Full description.

This lesson presents an introduction to solar observations by eye or telescope and during eclipse. It also explores the distance to the Sun, its layers, the corona and the solar wind. Safety rules for observing the Sun are stressed as students are informed about the visible layers of the Sun - photosphere, chromosphere, corona. Students learn about the high temperature of the corona, the evidence ... Full description.

This description of the fossil record of bacteria focuses on one particular group of bacteria, the cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, which have left a fossil record that extends far back into the Precambrian. The oldest cyanobacteria-like fossils known are nearly 3.5 billion years old and are among the oldest fossils currently known. Cyanobacteria are larger than most bacteria and may secrete a thick ... Full description.

Information on this page pertains to dinoflagellates, the fossil record of which may extend into the Precambrian. Spherical organic-walled microfossils known as acritarchs, some of which may be dinoflagellate hystrichospheres, first appear in rocks about 1.8 billion years old. Exactly what the acritarchs were is not known with certainty; they probably included a number of clades of eukaryotic algae, ... Full description.

This site describes some unusual fossils of the late Precambrian age, found on exposed rock surfaces along the southern coast of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. The most famous locality where these fossils can be seen is at Mistaken Point at the southernmost tip of the Avalon Peninsula. The Mistaken Point fossils were preserved by being blanketed with layers of fine volcanic ash and are dated ... Full description.

This site describes the White Mountains, the Inyo Mountains, and associated ranges along the California-Nevada border north of Death Valley. This location presents one of the most important and best-known Late Proterozoic to Cambrian sections in the United States. Starting with the unfossiliferous Precambrian rocks of the Wyman Formation, paleontologists can work their way through a complete section ... Full description.

The Tommotian Age began about 530 million years ago and is a subdivision of the early Cambrian. Named for rock exposures in Siberia, the Tommotian saw the first major radiation of the animals, or metazoans, including the first appearance of a great many mineralized taxa such as brachiopods, trilobites, archaeocyathids, molluscs, and echinoderms. A few million years before the Tommotian, in the Vendian, ... Full description.