Classroom Resources

This film explores the hypothesis that different tones of skin color in humans arose as adaptations to the intensity of ultraviolet radiation in different parts of the world.

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.

A number of questions are embedded within the short film The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes, which illustrates how gene duplications and mutations have led to remarkable physiological adaptations in Antarctic fish.

Several questions are embedded within the short film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation, which uses the rock pocket mouse as a living example of natural selection.

This activity supports concepts covered in the film The Making of a Theory. Students develop their nonfiction reading comprehension by analyzing excerpts from texts written by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.

This activity challenges students to identify observations that Darwin and Wallace made during their travels, as shown in the short film The Origin of Species: The Making of a Theory. Students then evaluate claims about evolution by natural selection based on these observations.

This activity reinforces concepts presented in the short film The Making of a Theory. Using a map of the Malay Archipelago and information about the animals found on different islands, students discover the Wallace Line: a sharp boundary that separates distinct Asian and Australian fauna.

This activity supports the viewing of the film The Making of a Theory. Students evaluate and discuss several claims relating to the history and evidence that led to the theory of evolution by natural selection.

In this activity, students collect and analyze data from a hands-on model to discover why even slight variations in beak size can impact a bird’s ability to obtain food and survive.

This animation shows how a single species can give rise to many different species with distinct traits, using anole lizards as an example.

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 presented in the short film The Origin of Species: The Making of a Theory, which documents the epic voyages of naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.