In the face of a changing climate, the Tribe is building capacityand climate resiliencethrough forestry management, habitat protection, and an innovative approach to healthy eating.
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?
Rating: Example of High Quality NGSS Design
Awarded the NGSS Design Badge
Science Discipline: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Length: Unit
Numerous reports suggest an increase in white shark encounters in the United States in recent years and the public is worried. In this integrated middle school unit, students engage in three-dimensional learning that enables them to explain the phenomenon. White sharks in the coastal waters of Southern California serve as a case study for students to ask questions and build understanding. Students initially question if white shark encounters are in fact increasing and investigate reports of sightings. They wonder if we know whether or not the population is on the rise, leading students to next explore past evidence from fossils and data from historic fishers logs. Students then question how scientists today are monitoring white sharks, setting the stage to explore the use of modern tracking devices (digging deep into waves and signals) and what researchers know about white sharks because of the application of this technology. This opens up the opportunity for students to question and consider what the science community has learned about white shark life history, how humans have impacted the white shark population off Southern California, and to devise a way to address public concerns.
his is a fun, casual “mini discussion” that can be used to get students generating and sharing ideas in a low-stakes setting, and to help build a culture of discourse and develop discussion skills within a group. It’s an interesting and fairly easy topic for students to think about and participate in. Students tend to love talking about the “most,” “least,” and “how many” facts about nature. The very broad category of “organism” means all students will probably have something to contribute to the discussion. Engaging in this kind of talk can help prepare a group to participate in similar or more involved discussions later, and it can “run in the background” while the group is eating lunch or a snack, or whenever they seem ready to sit and chat.
Hank guides us through the process of natural selection, the key mechanism of evolution.
Chapters:
1) Natural Selection
2) Adaptation
3) Fitness
4) Four Principals
a. Variations
b. Heritability
c. "The Struggle for Existence"
d. Survival and Reproductive Rates
5) Biolography
6) Modes of Selection
a. Directional Selection
b. Stabilizing Selection
c. Disruptive Selection
7) Sexual Selection
8) Artificial Selection
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"The deepest parts of the world’s oceans hold many mysteries, one of which involves its tiniest residents. Tiny prokaryotes called Thaumarchaeota survive in the extreme environment of the deep oceans. While the metabolic functions of Thaumarchaeota that live in shallower depths are fairly well described, those that live in the deepest sea zone – hadal water – are less well known. Now, a new study provides insight into the metabolism and cellular adaptations of deep-sea Thaumarchaeota. Using metagenomics to evaluate seawater samples from the Mariana Trench, researchers found that Thaumarchaeota present in the hadal zone were distinct from those in shallower depths. Hadal zone Thaumarchaeota depended on genes involved in bioenergetics, including those horizontally transferred from other extremophiles, to survive, and their unique genetic makeup revealed the potential to import a wide range of organic compounds..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
In this biology activity, students will first brainstorm how humans use their hands. They will then conduct a short experiment to determine the importance of the opposable thumb to humans and how it is an important adaptation.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"For thousands of years, the Nile has provided bountiful gifts to the people who make their home around its banks, offering food, a means of transport, irrigation, and fertile soil. But there is a limit to how much the Nile can give. Already in the 1970s, Egypt began fully utilizing the available resources of the Nile. Any additional demand has been met virtually, through imports of food. Now, research suggests that within the next decade, Egypt is poised to import as much “virtual water” as it receives from the Nile. In a new study from MIT, researchers compiled water and crop data for Egypt spanning the past 60 years. That gave them one of the most detailed looks at modern water use ever produced for the country, and helped them understand Egypt’s trade in “virtual water”. Virtual water refers to the hidden flow of water in food and commodities. For example, it takes about 1100 tons of water to produce one ton of maize in Egypt..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
This video segment from Nature profiles a small business in which homing pigeons play a central role.
This free, online article, developed for elementary teachers, describes a Kindergarten polar science, standards aligned, unit centered on The Polar Express developing literacy, math, and science skills.
This video segment from Nature features ravens, the most intelligent birds in the crow family.
This video segment from NatureScene describes the characteristics of redwood trees at Redwood National Park.
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn about the critical role of flowers in seed plant reproductive biology.
Learn about root systems of trees in the Congaree Swamp National Park in this video segment from NatureScene.
Screening Shakespeare is an open-access web-based textbook written and designed by Alexa Alice
Joubin based on her original research. It contains openly-licensed learning modules that introduce
students to key concepts of film studies, such as mise-en-scène, cinematography, sound and music,
and film theory within the context of film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays.
This video segment adapted from Northwest Indian College reveals how Native American life and knowledge is connected to natural cycles.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"One-third of the Earth’s fresh water comes from groundwater repositories. These terrestrial subsurface aquifers are an important source of our drinking water. Understanding the geochemistry and ecology of groundwater – including its microbial communities – is critical for keeping our water safe. A recent study sought to further understand a newly discovered superphylum – Patescibacteria. Patescibacteria is a very large superphylum, with more than 20 candidate phyla defined since 2015. This newly discovered class of bacteria is prevalent in groundwater environments and has limited genetic material. With such little genetic information to work from, the researchers wondered how these bacteria were able to adapt to changes and thrive in their aquatic environment. Using genome-resolved metagenomics, they evaluated sequence data from groundwater-residing Patescibacteria..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
Observing an organism for an extended period of time can be a rewarding learning experience that helps students develop a meaningful relationship with the natural world. Students often engage more deeply in observing an organism if they’re given some sort of task to focus their observations. In this activity, pairs of students find an organism, then observe and record its structures and behaviors. Students apply the lens of adaptations as they come up with explanations for how their organisms’ structures and behaviors might help it survive in its habitat. In a group discussion, students consider the relationship between organisms’ structures and possible functions, which is a useful science thinking tool that can help them to better understand the natural world. This activity helps students develop a definition of adaptation that includes both behavioral and structural adaptations (adaptations are inheritable structures or behaviors that help a population of organisms survive in their habitat), and gives students the experience applying that definition to an organism in the local ecosystem.
David Attenborough looks at ͢__ëńlife in the trees͢__ë_ ˘: examining how species have evolved to cope with arboreal living. You will learn how lemurs, anteaters, bears and many others have developed different methods to help movement and survival.
Students conduct an experiment to determine whether or not the sense of smell is important to being able to recognize foods by taste. They do this by attempting to identify several different foods that have similar textures. For some of the attempts, students hold their noses and close their eyes, while for others they only close their eyes. After they have conducted the experiment, they create bar graphs showing the number of correct and incorrect identifications for the two different experimental conditions tested.