Introduction to how groups of organisms evolve and how natural selection can lead to evolution. [17:39]

Khan Academy learning modules include a Community space where users can ask questions and seek help from community members. Educators should consult with their Technology administrators to determine the use of Khan Academy learning modules in their classroom. Please review materials from external sites before sharing with students.

Students are introduced to the concepts of evolution by natural selection and digital evolution software. They learn about the field of evolutionary computation, which applies the principles of natural selection to solve engineering design problems. They learn the similarities and differences between natural selection and the engineering design process.

In this Museum Mondays episode from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Dr. Denise Su, Chief Academic Engagement Officer, Gertrude Haskell Britton Endowed Chair of Education, and Curator of Paleobotany & Paleoecology, tours the Human Origins Gallery, discussing the environment in which Lucy likely lived. Features a video and downloadable worksheet.

This field and classroom activity involves identification of similarities, differences, advantages, and disadvantages in survival, method of locomotion, food acquisition, and reproduction in three fresh-water microbes.

This lab activity demonstrates the difference between stabilizing and directional natural selection using two separate populations of sunflower seeds.

This is a lesson designed by a biology teacher. In it, students use maps and evidence of island age, molecular genetics, morphology, and distance apart to determine how the islands came to be occupied by different species of lizards. It will take some time and requires extensive background knowledge.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, examines physical science concepts, such as heat, conductors, and insulation, and applies this knowledge to the animals and people in the Arctic and Antarctica.

This article highlights lessons that help K-grade 5 students understand that animals and plants can only survive in certain environments.The lessons support the theme of an issue of the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The theme is "We Depend on Earth's Climate."

This is a very good introduction to the role evolution plays in the development of biodiversity. These topics and extinction are explained with the use of colorful interactive pictures.

Based on their experience exploring the Mars rover Curiosity and learning about what engineers must go through to develop a vehicle like Curiosity, students create Android apps that can control LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots, simulating the difficulties the Curiosity rover could encounter. The activity goal is to teach students programming design and programming skills using MIT's App Inventor software as the vehicle for the learning. The (free to download) App Inventor program enables Android apps to be created using building blocks without having to actually know a programming language. At activity end, students are ready to apply what they learn to write other applications for Android devices.

Students explore the relationships between genetics, biodiversity, and evolution through a simple activity involving hypothetical wild mouse populations. First, students toss coins to determine what traits a set of mouse parents possesses, such as fur color, body size, heat tolerance, and running speed. Next they use coin tossing to determine the traits a mouse pup born to these parents possesses. These physical features are then compared to features that would be most adaptive in several different environmental conditions. Finally, students consider what would happen to the mouse offspring if those environmental conditions were to change: which mice would be most likely to survive and produce the next generation?

This assignment uses a computer simulation of fruit fly genetics to have students design and interpret monohybrid crosses of a trait with simple dominant and recessive alleles. Detailed instructions with animated examples, background material, a sample report and a rubric are included.

Students perform an activity similar to the childhood “telephone” game in which each communication step represents a biological process related to the passage of DNA from one cell to another. This game tangibly illustrates how DNA mutations can happen over several cell generations and the effects the mutations can have on the proteins that cells need to produce. Next, students use the results from the “telephone” game (normal, substitution, deletion or insertion) to test how the mutation affects the survivability of an organism in the wild. Through simple enactments, students act as “predators” and “eat” (remove) the organism from the environment, demonstrating natural selection based on mutation.

Students learn about mutations to both DNA and chromosomes, and uncontrolled changes to the genetic code. They are introduced to small-scale mutations (substitutions, deletions and insertions) and large-scale mutations (deletion duplications, inversions, insertions, translocations and nondisjunctions). The effects of different mutations are studied as well as environmental factors that may increase the likelihood of mutations. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post-assessments are provided.

Becoming Human Part 3: Last Human Standing, examines the fate of the last of the Neanderthals during the Ice Age. The question of "How did modern humans take over the world?", is explored. [01:20:00]

The resource discusses the intelligent design. Some topics included are defining science, evolution, Darwin's prediction, and the Wedge strategy. The activity includes video and audio extras consisting of an interview with Judge Jones and the evolution of a species.

In 2002, paleontologists discovered a fossil in China that seemed to provide a missing link between dinosaurs and birds, and to support the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs. The fossil came from a four-winged dinosaur they named the Microraptor. This PBS video looks at the discovery and the debates and research that followed from it.

This documentary film [02:00:00] examines Darwin's insights and discusses how new breakthroughs in science are unlocking answers to riddles that Darwin couldn't answer. (29 December 2009)

When the "Origin of Species" was published in 1859, the ambitions and scopes of science were dramatically expanding. "Origin of Species" marked the transition of biology from a prescience to a science. [4:04]

Great site providing a "Quickindex" to find various resources. Also included are links to more information on this museum.