Natural Selection and Evolution

A Selection Pressure is the first in a three lesson series from Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry, that leads students to make sense of evolution.  This lesson is introduced in the teacher guide (this is accessible once a login has been e ...

Mutations is the final lesson in a three lesson series that includes "A Selection Pressure" and "Conflicting Selection Pressures" from Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry,  that leads students to make sense of evolution. ...

Conflicting Selection Pressures is the second lesson from Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry, in a three lesson series that leads students to make sense of evolution.  This lesson is meant to be used after A Selection Pressure which contai ...

This lesson is designed to allow students the experience of how a population can change based on changes to the environment.  Students will use their own data from an interactive simulation (a paper based model is also available in the related d ...

This lesson from HHMI BioInteractive is based on the classic study of the evolution of fur color in rock pocket mouse populations. It supports the short film, “The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation.”  The creato ...

Thermoregulation in Dinosaurs is one of a series of Data Point resources from HHMI Biointeractive. Data Points engage students in analyzing and interpreting data from primary literature in the biological sciences.  The resources are intended to ...

  This lesson is designed to accompany a short film by HHMI BioInteractive. In the film, Penn State University anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski discusses the evidence for the natural selection of human skin color. She describes how the pheno ...

  The phenomenon of tuskless elephants can lead students to figure out many scientific concepts including:  natural selection, adaptation, genetics, ecology, and human impact.  This short video introduces tusklessness (due to poachi ...

This article in NSTA’s February 2016 issue of “The Science Teacher” describes how “cover boards” can be used to create microhabitats, models of ecosystems, that allow students to investigate  interactions under diff ...

Effects of Natural Selection on Finch Beak Size is one of a series of Data Point resources from HHMI Biointeractive.  Data Points engage students in analyzing and interpreting data from primary literature in the biological sciences.  The re ...

Schooling Behavior of Stickleback Fish from Different Habitats is one of a series of Data Point resources from HHMI Biointeractive.  Data Points engage students in analyzing and interpreting data from primary literature in the biological science ...

This interactive simulation allows students to explore natural selection in bunnies by controlling factors in the environment (equator or arctic environment), selection factors (wolves, food), and characteristics of the bunnies (fur color, tail lengt ...

This is one of 25 assessment probes from the book,” Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 2: 25 More Formative Assessment Probes”, by Page Keeley and co-authors. All assessment probes in this collection are aligned to a particular science conce ...

This is one of 30 lessons from the NSTA Press book Scientific Argumentation in Biology. The lesson engages students in an argumentation cycle in which they use evidence from their analysis of the amino acid sequences 1-40 for the hemoglobin subunit ...

This activity provides an introduction to natural selection and the role of genetic variation by asking students to analyze illustrations of rock pocket mouse populations (dark/light fur) on different color substrates in the Sonoran Desert (light/dar ...

This virtual evolution lab utilizes data collection and analysis to allow students to study evolutionary processes using modern stickleback fish and fossil specimens. Students virtually analyze the pelvic structures of the threespine stickleback f ...

reviews using evidence, integrates model building, and corresponds to HS-LS4

From TeachEngineering - Students engineer and evolve digital organisms with the challenge to produce organisms with the highest fitness values in a particular environment. They do this through use of the free Avida-ED digital evolution software appli...

Understanding the immune system and how diseases develop will help students long after they have left your classroom. This session introduced free modules that help students understand these concepts and more, including the use of animals in biomedic...

In this activity, students examine pictures of pollen grains representing several species that show the structural differences that scientists use for identification. Students analyze model soil samples with material mixed in to represent pollen grai...

This Earth Exploration Toolbook chapter is a detailed computer-based exploration in which students learn how various climatic conditions impact the formations of sediment layers on the ocean floor. They analyze sediment core data from the Ross Ice Sh...

This video describes the role that dendrochronology plays in understanding climate change, especially changes to high elevation environments at an upper tree line. Dendrochronologists from the Big Sky Institute sample living and dead trees, describe ...

A short video that discusses how changing climate is affecting the population of Adélie penguins.

This video describes the effect of a warming climate on the tundra biome and specifically the impacts of changing climate on the Rocky Mountain Pika, a small mammal that struggles with summer heat.

This animation illustrates how the hardiness zones for plants have changed between 1990 and 2006 based data from 5,000 National Climatic Data Center cooperative stations across the continental United States.

This interactive shows the extent of the killing of lodgepole pine trees in western Canada. The spread of pine beetle throughout British Columbia has devastated the lodgepole pine forests there. This animation shows the spread of the beetle and the i...

This video clip highlights the effort on by a group of young students to ban the use of plastic shopping bags in the city of Santa Monica. The video documents the effort and provides visual testimony of the effects that trash and specifically plastic...

A short video on how changing climate is impacting the ecosystem and thereby impacting traditional lifestyles of the Athabaskan people of Alaska.

In this video, students learn how scientific surveys of wildlife are performed at a site in Yosemite, California. These surveys, in conjunction with studies from the early 1900s, provide evidence that animal populations in Yosemite have shifted over ...

In this interactive, students explore, at their own pace, how global climate change may affect health issues. Issues include airborne diseases, developmental disorders, mental health disorders, vector-borne diseases and waterborne diseases.

In this activity, students explore how the timing of color change and leaf drop of New England's deciduous trees is changing.

This activity introduces students to plotting and analyzing phenology data. Students use 30 years of data that shows the date of the first lilac bloom and the number of days of ice cover of nearby Gull Lake.

This is lesson five of a 9-lesson module. Activity explores the effects of climate change on different parts of the Earth system and on human well-being: polar regions, coral reefs, disease vectors, extreme weather, and biodiversity.

In this activity from NOAA's Okeanos Explorer Education Materials Collection, learners investigate how methane hydrates might have been involved with the Cambrian explosion.

This activity introduces students to stratigraphic correlation and the dating of geologic materials, using coastal sediment cores that preserve a record of past hurricane activity.

Four secondary lessons that accompany the documentary film, Ocean Frontiers II. Part 2 of a 3-part set for the film series.

Students use an online simulation (https://www.biologysimulations.com/population-genetics) to test a self-developed hypothesis. Students study the color trait of a fictional population. Color is determined by one gene with two alleles. Population siz...

Students use an online simulation (https://www.biologysimulations.com/population-genetics) to test a heterozygote advantage scenario.

Students use an online simulation (https://www.biologysimulations.com/arms-race) to test an evolutionary arms race scenario involving highly toxic prey and a predator with resistance to the toxin.

Students use an online simulation (https://www.biologysimulations.com/genetic-drift-founder-effect) to study a trait that increases mating success in males, but also increases the chances of being eaten by a predator.

In this minds-on, hands-on activity, students develop their understanding of natural selection by analyzing specific examples and carrying out a simulation. The questions in the first section introduce students to the basic process of natural selecti...

Students use an online simulation (https://www.biologysimulations.com/natural-selection) to explore how environment can impact fur color distribution in a population.

The Natural Selection virtual lab allows students the opportunity to investigate into how natural selection leads to the predominance of certain traits in a population, and the suppression of others. Therefore, through this virtual lab, students will...

The goal of the Diversity of Traits virtual lab is to allow students the opportunity to investigate how variations of traits can occur because of mutations. This virtual lab complements the Natural Selection virtual lab by addressing a common misconc...

In this analysis and discussion activity, students explore the main hypotheses about the origins of the new coronavirus that is causing the current pandemic. Students learn how mutations, natural selection, and contact between species can work togeth...