Classroom Resources

In this activity, students work with authentic research data to explore the impact of poaching on African elephants.

This activity builds on information presented in the video Selection for Tuskless Elephants. Students use scientific evidence and reasoning to construct an explanation of and develop an argument for tusklessness in elephant populations.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that investigated how males in a species of sexually cannibalistic spiders choose their mates.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that tested how effectively mimicry protects arthropods against different types of predators.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study on prehistoric human food sources. In this study, scientists used carbon isotopes to determine how the advent of agriculture affected human diets.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from the world’s longest-running controlled artificial selection study, in which scientists tested whether they could use selective breeding to change the protein concentration of maize (corn).

In this activity, students develop arguments for the adaptation and natural selection of Darwin’s finches, based on evidence presented in the film The Beak of the Finch.

This activity explores the evidence that differences in human skin color are adaptations to varying intensity of UV light, as discussed in the short film The Biology of Skin Color.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that investigated evolutionary changes in seed-eating finches after a drought.

In this activity, students formulate a hypothesis and collect and analyze real research data about how quickly natural selection can act on specific traits in a population as a result of predation. It is accompanied by a short video that describes the experiment this activity is based on.

In this activity, students analyze and graph data taken from a population of Galápagos finches before and after a major drought.

This activity explores the concepts and research on the anole lizards discussed in the short film The Origin of Species: Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree, including adaptation by natural selection, convergent evolution, and the formation of new species.