The purpose of this resource is to further students' understanding of the causes of seasonal change using visualizations to compare the effects of incoming solar energy in the two hemispheres. The class reviews global visualizations of incoming sunlight and surface temperature and discusses seasonal change. Students use the visualizations to support inquiry on the differences in seasonal change in ... Full description.

In this lesson students working in teams classify furniture, share their categories and rationales, then note how their different schemes vary arbitrarily. They then see how living organisms are classified, and note how these groupings are natural, nearly always reflecting the same ancestral relationships in nested hierarchies, regardless of the deeper criteria. Such patterns are revealed with a look ... Full description.

In this lesson, students will learn that some evolutionary change is rapid and discontinuous, and some change is gradual; how fossil evidence can provide clues to the past; and how speciation may account for evolutionary branching and diversification. Fossil shells of a land snail are arranged by layers of age into a sequence pattern suggesting gradual change, or punctuated equilibria. Students will ... Full description.

This lesson introduces students to the building of cladograms as evolutionary trees showing how "shared derived characters" can be used to reveal degrees of relationship. Given some groups of organisms and some of their distinguishing characteristics, the students will construct a cladogram. Given a cladogram, the students will properly interpret and analyze that cladogram in terms of recognizing ... Full description.

In this lesson students learn how classification of organisms is based on evolutionary relationships. They will also learn how primates are categorized, and how they are related. 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 ... Full description.

In this lesson students prepare the components for building a Colossal Classroom Cladogram of vertebrate evolution, then put it together, showing the gradual, mosaic accumulation of the traits which humans possess. A major purpose of this is to dramatize the evidence that we (and in fact all living things) did not suddenly pop into existence, but clearly evolved as an accumulation of traits over vast ... Full description.

This contrived natural selection simulation has students build and modify simple paper airplanes (Origami Birds). They demonstrate that: mutations occur randomly; selection is based on the immediate needs of the organism; inherited characteristics (whether mutated or not) are contingent; divergent evolution may occur when sub-populations face different environments; convergent evolution may result ... Full description.

In this lesson students use real data to develop likely phylogenies for seven related populations of lizards living on the Canary Islands (off the west coast of Africa). Three phylogenetic charts will be constructed, each using different forms of data: geography, geology, morphology, and molecular genetics (DNA comparisons). The lesson serves as an example of MILE: Multiple Independent Line of Evidence, ... Full description.

In this evolution lesson, two sets of simulated fossils (caminalcules) are provided as cutouts. Students arrange them on two time scales. One set produces a visual example of gradualism; the other shows punctuated equilibria. Students will learn the following concepts: some evolutionary change is rapid and discontinuous, and some change is gradual; fossil patterns can provide clues to the past; and ... Full description.

In this lesson, students read and discuss selected and edited excerpts from the essays of Stephen Jay Gould on the subject of contrivances. Students learn that many features of modern organisms reflect the structure of their ancestors in ways that are not adaptive. They also learn that one of the best indicators of evolution is not the examples of perfect adaptations, but of the relatively imperfect ... Full description.