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To search for teaching materials that address particular concepts in our conceptual framework, visit the teaching guide for your grade level:
K-2, 3-5 , 6-8, 9-12, or College
Found 35 resources:
Scientists, collaborators, and friends dig into the fossil record
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
This Science Short describes how two paleontologists collaborate as friends and mentor/mentee on a research project. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Finding community among fossils
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This Science Short illustrates how day-to-day community-level interactions shape the course of science. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Discovering a strange new group of ancient sea creatures
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
This Science Short illustrates how fossils have reshaped our understanding of the diverse forms life can take. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Science and technology on fast forward
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
- Physical Sciences
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Teach about how technological and scientific advances propel one another forward, using an example that connects the cathode ray tube to modern DNA technologies. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Fair tests in the fossil record: Avoiding extinction
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Teach about test design in the field of paleontology. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Fair tests in the field of medicine: Aiding Alzheimer patients
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Teach about experimental design in the field of medicine. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Beyond the prototype: Animal psychology
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Have your students read about an investigation of animal navigation and compare it to the Science Checklist in order to explore the key traits that make science science. Get more tips on using Science Stories in class.
The science checklist applied: Solving DNA’s double helix
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Have your students read about the investigation of DNA's double helix and compare it to the Science Checklist in order to explore the key traits that make science science. Get more tips on using Science Stories in class.
Anolis Lizards
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- Collins, Jennifer
Resource type:
- lab activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: Two class periods
Overview
Students "travel" to the Greater Antilles to figure out how the Anolis lizards might have evolved there. Students make observations, ask questions, share data, form hypotheses, generate expectations, get more data, interpret them, and test their ideas.
Amazon fly
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- lab activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 10-15 minutes
Overview
This short activity quickly engages the participants in the process of developing testable hypotheses. Students come up with multiple hypotheses to explain a set of observations and figure out how to test these hypotheses.
Clipbirds
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: one class period
Overview
In this activity, students simulate bird feeding with "beaks" that differ in size. The proportion of big-, medium-, and small-beaked birds changes in response to available types of food. This is a lesson on evolution, but suggestions on how to incorporate the nature and process of science are included.
Discovering mass extinctions in the fossil record
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- lab activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 2 hours
Overview
This activity (suitable for distance learning) is designed to introduce students to the nature and process of science through the discovery of mass extinctions in the fossil record. Students will explore the fossil record of brachiopods and bivalves using the Paleobiological Database, identify patterns in their data, and generate and evaluate hypotheses. They will also document this process using the Understanding Science flowchart. Clicking the link below will download the Word file for this lesson.
Dino-Data
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 3-4 class periods
Overview
Students examine data about dinosaurs and hypothesize about what the data can tell them. Students modify their hypotheses as more information is revealed and review what they have learned about how science works.
Designing your very own science experiment
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- Stefanski, Mark
Resource type:
- lab activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 2-4 class periods
Overview
Students design and carry out an experiment using pill bugs (isopods). Other organisms could be used in place of the pill bugs. Students reflect on the process used by charting their pathway on the Science Flowchart.
High altitude adaptations: The work of Emilia Huerta-Sánchez
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- research profile
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 1 hour
Overview
This research profile tells the story of Emilia Huerta-Sánchez and how she uses mathematical modeling to answer evolutionary questions. Students examine data visualizations and learn about the process of science while focusing on adaptations, allele frequencies, and natural selection. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Investigating a Deep Sea Mystery
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- ETOL
Resource type:
- lab activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 4-5 class periods
Overview
In this lab activity, students examine authentic morphological and phylogenetic data of three fish families and then pose and test alternative hypotheses about the fishes' classification.
Xenosmilus
Grade Level(s):
- 3-5
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: One class period
Overview
In this lesson, students play the roles of paleontologists on a dig. They "unearth" a few fossils at a time and attempt to reconstruct the animal the fossils represent.
What do you think it means to be human?
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 50 minutes
Overview
This first lesson of the "What does it mean to be human?" sequence sets a scientific frame of mind for students as they begin to explore the question, "What do you think it means to be human?" This lesson sets an important tone by highlighting that other lines of human inquiry outside of science are important for answering this question on a personal level, but the class will focus on a scientific definition of "humanity." Students learn to distinguish questions that could be addressed by the methods of science and those that could not, and they practice applying these criteria.
Time for mitosis
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- Lederman, Norman and Judith
Resource type:
- article
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: One to two class periods
Overview
Drs. Lederman compare two methods of teaching about mitosis, emphasizing how to enhance a lesson by incorporating the nature of science.
The story behind the science
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Iowa State University
Resource type:
- article
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
- Physical Sciences
- Space science
Time: Variable
Overview
Thirty stories spanning five disciplines help students explore key science concepts through the eyes of the scientists who were involved, while emphasizing the nature and process of science.
The Hobbit: When scientists disagree about the evidence
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Visionlearning
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: One class period
Overview
This classroom activity, adapted from an exercise on PBS's NOVA website, provides an excellent example of an active debate within the scientific community regarding a relatively recent human fossil find, Homo floresiensis.
The great fossil find
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- ENSI
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: one class period
Overview
Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt and form hypotheses about the identity of the creature they discover. Students revise their hypotheses as new evidence is found.
The structure of DNA: Cooperation and competition
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 2-3 periods
Overview
This Science Story examines how evidence and ideas from different research groups contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Get tips for using science stories in class.
Teaching the Process of Molecular Phylogeny and Systematics: A Multi-Part Inquiry-Based Exercise
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Lents, Nathan
Resource type:
- lab activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 1 to 4 class periods or one 3 hour lab session
Overview
Students explore molecular data from Homo sapiens and four related primates and develop multiple hypotheses regarding the ancestry of these five species by analyzing DNA sequences, protein sequences, and chromosomal maps.
Endosymbiosis: Cells within cells
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: one period
Overview
This Science Story on endosymbiosis explores the career of microbiologist Lynn Margulis and how an unlikely idea overcame strong resistance within the scientific community and finally came to be an accepted part of evolutionary theory. Get tips for using science stories in class.
Scientific Process: The mysteries of life with Tim and Moby
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- BrainPOP
Resource type:
- Science Story
- video
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
How does science work? This animated video introduces key ideas using the story of the how science uncovered the link between the dinosaur extinction and a massive asteroid impact. (Note that this video inaccurately characterizes the difference between hypotheses and theories. See Understanding Science 101 for a correction.)
Ancient bones, modern problems: One scientist’s trash is another scientist’s data
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- research profile
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Learn how scientists reuse and upcycle their data, while following graduate student Maria Viteri as she investigates ancient and modern small mammal communities. Get tips for using science stories in class.
Asteroids and dinosaurs: Unexpected twists and an unfinished story
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 2 class periods
Overview
This story uses the Science Flowchart to map Walter Alvarez's scientific journey as he investigates an intriguing hypothesis about the extinction of the non-Avian dinosaurs. Get tips for using science stories in class.
How science works
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- California Academy of Sciences
Resource type:
- Science Story
- video
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
This Science in Action video uses the Understanding Science Flowchart to follow arachnologist Charles Griswold and colleagues as they describe the process involved in an exciting new spider discovery.
What is it about Los Angeles?
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 5 min
Overview
This Science Short illustrates the idea that answering one scientific question leads to other scientific questions in the context of research about fossil insects. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Questioning the party line on climate
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 5 min
Overview
This Science Short illustrates testing assumptions in the context of research about fossil insects. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Predicting insects’ response to climate change
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 5 min
Overview
This Science Short illustrates the practical applications of scientific knowledge in the context of research about fossil insects. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
From city girl to naturalist
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 5 min
Overview
This Science Short illustrates how scientists are shaped by their personal experiences in the context of research about fossil insects. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
Fossil insects take to social media
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 5 min
Overview
This Science Short illustrates scientific collaboration in the context of research about fossil insects. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
50,000 years of Los Angeles summers?
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This Science Short illustrates the revision of scientific ideas in the context of research about fossil insects. Get tips on using Science Stories in class.
