Curated OER
Adaptation Investigation - Extreme Beaks
Find photos of bird beaks or show a prepared four slide PowerPoint, "Extreme Beaks" to introduce your class to this special animal adaptation. Provide them with a data table and supplies to try gathering food with tools that each...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Sorting Finch Species
Don't just tell your class about Darwin's finches ... show them! Sort some of science's most famous birds using an interactive lesson. Learners try their hand at classifying finches using song, sonogram, and beak appearance, as well as...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Natural Selection and the Evolution of Darwin's Finches
Darwin explained the connection between species of finches 150 years before scientists understood DNA. Technology and progressing science proved he was right, yet many struggle to understand how natural selection happens. Scholars use...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Adaptation of Species (Birds and Butterflies)
A video about the impact of climate change on butterfly populations and a PowerPoint about butterfly and bird adaptations warm science learners up for the activity to follow. Using a variety of tools that reprsent unique styles of bird...
ARKive
Biodiversity and Evolution – Darwin’s Finches
Teens experience natural selection firsthand (or first beak) in an activity that has them act as finches foraging for food. Using different household items to act as different beak styles, your little finches will collect as much...
Curated OER
The Beaks of the Finches
High schoolers become birds and are given "beak-types". After completing the simulation, students relate results to adaptations and natural selection. Extensions of the simulation allow for comparative results and include population...
Field Museum
The Case of Darwin's Finches
One of the most striking pieces of evidence for Darwin's Evolution of Species was his observations of finches and how their beaks differed from island to island, depending on their primary food sources. So what would happen to the theory...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Beaks as Tools: Selective Advantage in Changing Environments
How does nature select some adaptations over others? Scholars experiment picking up seeds with two different types of tools simulating beaks. After practicing, they experience a drought where one type of seed suddenly isn't available....
Berkeley Engineering and Mentors
Darwin's Finches
Try a twist on the old finch beak and chopsticks activity by using M&Ms on a Twister mat. Spoons, knives, forks, and chopsticks represent beaks and are randomly assigned to your little birds, who must collect as much food as possible...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Evolution in Action: Data Analysis
An environmental factor, such as a drought, sometimes speeds up the rate of natural selection. Scholars analyze data on the beaks of birds around the time of the drought. They compare those that survived to those that perished and find...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2009
Emerging ecologists need a full understanding of life, from the inner workings of a cell to the complex relationships among organisms. This examination is meant to assess high schoolers after an entire year course on the living...
Curated OER
Regents High School Exam: Living Environment 2008
Tne New York Regents High School Examinations are comprehensive and include various styles of questions, includingmultiple choice and the analysis of graphs. This particular version, the 2008 Living Environment exam surveys a variety of...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2007
Environmental science enthusiasts show what they know at the end of the year by taking this full-fledged final exam. They answer multiple choice, graph interpretation, and essay analysys questions, 73 of them in all. Topics range from...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2005
The 2005 version of the Regents High School Examination in the area of ecology is as comprehensive as previous years' exams. It consists of 40 multiple choice questions on everything from the structure of DNA to the interactions within...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2003
The living environment, from the interior of a cell to the complex relationships among populations, are queried in this final examination. Learners look at air pollution maps, diagrams of cells, population graphs, and drawing of cells....
Curated OER
The Beaks of Finches
Students study finches and how they have evolved over time. In this finch review lesson students fill out a key points worksheet then divide into teams and complete an activity.
Curated OER
The Beaks of Finches
Learners examine how species evolve over time and how this can change a population. In this environment lesson students complete a worksheet on finches.
Curated OER
The Birds and the Beaks
Students explore the adaptations that birds have. In this adaptations lesson students view a video and create a concept map of birds and their adaptive traits.
ARKive
Biodiversity and Evolution
Why is diversity in biology so important for an ecosystem? Explore biodiversity, evolution, and natural selection with a presentation for your biology class. It features clear information, activities for further understanding, and...
American Museum of Natural History
What is Biodiversity?
Not all dogs are the same just like not all finches are the same. An interactive online lesson helps individuals learn about the causes and limitations to biodiversity. The clickable sections describe the basics of the genetics of...
Curated OER
WHAT DARWIN NEVER SAW: Evolution, Science, Biology, Natural Selection
Students view video showing recent field work on a twenty two-year study of finch beaks on a small island in the Galapagos, showing natural selection clearly operating in the wild.
Curated OER
How Evolution Works
Students work in groups to investigate and present genetic variation, adaptation, and sexual selection as it relates to evolution. For this evolution lesson, students watch a video discuss how the human eye could evolve due to natural...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Spreadsheet Tutorial 3: Column Graphs, Error Bars, and Standard Error of the Mean
There's absolutely no error in using the tutorial! Learners use spreadsheets to create column or bar graphs with error bars. They also learn how to calculate the standard error of the mean in the tutorial. This is the third installment...
Curated OER
Darwin's Principles
The author invested plenty of time in the presentation of this information; it is visually appealing, contains sound-effects, and displays creative animations and photos! Unfortunately, blank lines are included on most of the slides with...