Science Topics

Use science topic words to find web sites with lesson plans and activities.

Evolution

1. Teacher's domain: multimedia resources for the classroom and professional development
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026871
   This Internet site features a multimedia library for K-12 teachers and students. It contains classroom-ready resources and multimedia lesson plans for high school and middle school life science units.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
2. The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science case collection
   Featured in ENC Focus   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2001 Grade(s): 9 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 019214
   This Internet site, maintained by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, offers a collection of case studies for use in undergraduate science classrooms. Designed to humanize science and to illustrate scientific methodology and values, the cases also develop students' skills in group learning, speaking, and critical thinking.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
3. Cosmic evolution: from big bang to humankind
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2001 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026872
   This Internet site offers background information and resources to help students understand the origins of matter and life in our universe, known as cosmic evolution. Based on a course taught at Harvard University, questions from how the universe began to how humans evolved are addressed, using an interdisciplinary approach between life, Earth, space, and physical sciences.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
4. Dr. Saul's biology in motion
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): 8 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026084
   This Internet site provides animations and interactive activities highlighting major concepts in biology. The graphics are created and compiled by a biology instructor to help illustrate common topics that were lacking elsewhere on the Internet, and can be used for class demonstrations or for individual learning.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
5. Science and health: resources from the New York Times and Learning Network
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2000 Grade(s): 3 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 020177
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained for grades 3 to 12 by the New York Times Learning Network, offers lesson plan units that use recent New York Times articles as springboards for engaging students. Written in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in New York City, each lesson plan and the article it references can be printed out for classroom use.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
6. Learning from the fossil record
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2000 Grade(s): 7 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 019111
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained for grades K to 12, presents articles and activities designed to help teachers use paleontology in the classroom. Written by paleontologists and educators, the articles are divided into two categories: scientific literacy and educational resources.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
7. You try it!
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 1998 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 020865
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, developed by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), provides eight interactive displays that explore a variety of science topics. Users click and drag to probe the motor cortex, replicate DNA, and build atoms from subatomic particles.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
8. Understanding evolution: an evolution website for teachers
   Date: 2004 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029736
   This site offers methods for teaching evolution and suggests ways to deal with common problems that educators have experienced when teaching about the topic. The site also addresses questions that students might ask such as 'Why should we care about evolution?' A series of cartoons points out common misconceptions about evolution being a ladder of progress that also explains the origin of life.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
9. Explorations through time
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 027565
   This Internet site, from the University of California Museum of Paleontology, provides seven lesson plans, centered on web activities, that explore the history of life on Earth. The lessons are divided into three groups based on age, although most overlap, and focus on teaching students content along with the process of science.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
10. Florida panthers investigation: an examination of evolution and conservation biology
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029744
    In this Internet site, students investigate how to protect an endangered population of Florida panthers. Designed as part of a unit on evolutionary biology, the site was designed to reinforce students' understanding of ecology, natural selection, and evolution.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
11. Stinging cousins?
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 7 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 100479
    In this game, students use information about the characteristics that certain animals have in common to determine how closely humans are related to 'stingers'--invertebrate animals like corals and jellies (jellyfish). The player arranges five animal cards (bird, jelly, sponge, worm, and octopus) in order from most alien to most human-like.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
12. Genetic origins: the study of human evolution begins with your DNA
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026955
    This Internet site, maintained by the Dolan DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, provides two complete lessons for studying evolution through DNA fingerprinting. Lesson titles include Mitochondrial (mt) Point Mutations and Alu Insertion Polymorphism.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
13. The astrobiology curriculum, an integrated inquiry-based curriculum: course overview
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029404
    This Internet site provides teachers with an overview of a year-long 9th grade astrobiology curriculum. Teachers can use this site to view the logistics of such a course and test a number of sample activities.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
14. Life science, parts 1 and 2
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: $4.00 ENC#: 025940
    This biology tutorial is available on-line by subscription. Part 1 covers the topics of energy, reproduction, and genetics.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
15. Galapagos finches: explorations in microevolution
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029549
    This Internet site describes an inquiry-based computer simulation, intended for middle school science and high school biology students, that explores the microevolution of finches on the Galapagos Islands. The site offers educators an overview of the program and provides a tutorial on how to use the simulation to teach a range of concepts related to ecology and evolution.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
16. ENSI/SENSI: Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes
    Date: 1998 Grade(s): 8 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 016276
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, developed for students in grades 8-postsecondary by the Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes (ENSI), contains many resources for the teaching of evolution and the nature of science. The main objective of ENSI is to improve the teaching of evolution in High School Biology courses by encouraging teachers to teach evolutionary thinking in the context of a more complete understanding of modern scientific thinking.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)