Classroom Resources

This video follows scientists working in Gorongosa National Park as they try to determine the genes responsible for tusk development in elephants.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that explored inbreeding depression in a small, isolated population of wolves.

This video follows germplasm bank coordinator Cristian Zavala Espinosa and geneticist Sarah Hearne, who are part of the global effort to preserve the genetic diversity of maize (corn).

This activity explores images of elephants with and without tusks, which serve as phenomena for learning about selection and human impacts on the frequency of traits within populations.

This data-driven activity accompanies the video Selection for Tuskless Elephants. It engages students in analyzing data to make evidence-based claims about the occurrence of tusklessness in elephant populations.

In this activity, students extend the concepts covered in the short film The Biology of Skin Color through the application of models and mathematical thinking to explain how genomic variation and human ancestry can explain differences in skin color, a polygenic trait.

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.

A number of questions are embedded within the short film The Origin of Species: The Beak of the Finch, which explores four decades of research on the evolution of the Galápagos finches.

This video describes how prehistoric extinction rates are calculated from fossil data in a paleodatabase and compared to modern extinction rates.

This interactive, modular lab explores the evolution of the anole lizards in the Caribbean through data collection and analysis.

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.

In this activity, students explore the phenomenon of convergent evolution presented in the short film The Origin of Species: Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree. They build and interpret phylogenetic trees to infer how certain adaptations evolved among the Anole lizard populations of the Caribbean.