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This site offers an abundance of information on Earth's biomes (rainforest, tundra, taiga, desert, temperate, and grasslands), as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems. The site features relevant facts, pictures, maps, indigenous plants and animals, additional links, and much more.

This resource is a wonderful reference, not a lesson plan. Teachers will need to provide an objective and structure for student interaction with the website.

Type: Educational Software / Tool

This is a two day (45 min class period) lesson plan designed for high school classes. This lesson plan includes a video hook, a card sort of domains and kingdoms, a web map template (and answer key), a simile homework assignment, and a summative assessment in the form of a brace map (template and answer key provided). The objectives of the lesson plan is that students are able to list characteristics of organisms found in the domains/kingdoms, classify an organism into a domain or kingdom, and predict which form evolved first.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is organized around the big idea Classification, Heredity, and Evolution for a high-school biology course. The design of the lesson is general, however, the 5E model can be easily incorporated.

The lesson teaches students how to distinguish characteristics of living organisms belonging to the domains of Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya and the kingdoms of Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA is designed to educate students about the use of classification systems and the general characteristics of vertebrates.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will help students develop a cladogram to demonstrate the evolutionary relationships of diverse organisms.

Type: Lesson Plan

This toolkit supports the development of an instructional unit on diversity and evolution and aligns with academic standards for science, English language arts, and mathematics for students in grades 9-12. The elements of this toolkit were assembled based upon their suitability for constructing a multi-day instructional unit on hominid evolution that corresponds with the 5E Learning Cycle of engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Your task as a lesson study team is to analyze the materials that are included in this toolkit and evaluate how they can be incorporated in a 5-E instructional unit plan that complies with the academic standards for science, English language arts, and mathematics. As you study these resources it is important to make note of any deficiencies or gaps that will need to be addressed and make modifications in the lesson resources and activities where needed.

Type: Lesson Study Resource Kit

Learn about asexual and sexual reproduction of fungi in this interactive tutorial. This is Part 2 of 3 in this series on the Structure and Function of Fungi. 

Click  to open Part 1, Basic Characteristics and Structures

Click HERE to open Part 3, Nutrition and Mutualistic Relationships

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the basic characteristics and structures of fungi in Part 1 of 3 in this series on the Structure and Function of Fungi.

Click  to open Part 2, Asexual and Sexual Reproduction

Click HERE to open Part 3, Nutrition and Mutualistic Relationships

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the nutrition and mutualistic relationships of fungi in this interactive tutorial. This is Part 3 of 3 in this series on the Structure and Function of Fungi. 

Click  to open Part 1, Basic Characteristics and Structures

Click HERE to open Part 2, Asexual and Sexual Reproduction

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the characteristics of domains and kingdoms used to classify living organisms with this interactive tutorial. You also will learn more about the reasons behind how and why this classification is done. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Dr. Jeff Holmes from the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology discusses the Encyclopedia of Life as a teaching resource for concepts regarding hierarchical relationships of organisms.

This video was created in collaboration with the Okaloosa County SCIENCE Partnership including the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Students will work in groups to select 5-10 organisms, create a dichotomous key that could identify them, and a cladogram to show their evolutionary relationships.

Type: Project

In this lesson, students explore the diversity and relationships among life on Earth. Using the Tree of Life website (TOLweb.org), students will move up and down the Tree of Life, exploring many different branches as the search the tree for specific organisms and create their own trees that show evolutionary relationships among seemly unrelated species.

Type: Teaching Idea

This is an activity where students create cladograms given a beginning point (species) and end point (species) using the Tree of Life website.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article asks the question: could life exist on Mars? The research depicted specifically applies to a simple, single-celled organism called a methanogen, which is in the kingdom Archaea. So far, studies have shown that these types of organisms are able to survive in manipulated environments similar to the harsh conditions on Mars.

Type: Text Resource

This Khan Academy video discusses the science of taxonomy and where humans fit into the tree of life.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video explains the definition of species and provides examples of animals that belong to the same species.

Type: Tutorial

This introduction to viruses by the Khan Academy addresses the question: Are viruses alive? How viruses enter cells and replicate is discussed in detail.

Type: Tutorial

This video from the Khan Academy introduces the symbiotic relationship between the many bacteria that live inside the human body. The basics of bacteria structure, reproduction, and bacterial infections are discussed.

Type: Tutorial