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.

This seminar helps the learner explore the basic concepts of life and what that means.  All life has certain things in common as well as a basic level of organization.  In this seminar you will investigate these traits and why they are important to life.StandardsBIO.A.1.1.1 Describe the characteristics of life shared by all prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.

In this Adaptation Name Game, students sitting or standing in a circle play a version of tag, with one person in the center. When a person in the circle says another person’s name, the person in the center of the circle tries to touch the person whose name was said, before they can say someone else’s name. Later, students pause to brainstorm strategies to improve their performance, then play some more. Students learn that this was a representation of how certain structures and behaviors help organisms survive in their habitat, and that these are adaptations that species inherit over time. This game helps students learn each other’s names, while “lightly” introducing them to what adaptations are. Note: This activity is only an introduction; to gain any meaningful understanding of the topic, students will need more adaptation-focused activities, such as Adaptations Intro-Live!, Structures & Behaviors, and Related & Different, which engage students more deeply in understanding the concept through interactions with real organisms.

“What lives here?” is a question that students tend to wonder about, and this activity taps into that natural curiosity. Students figure out what lives in an ecosystem by looking for evidence and by using a simple field guide. They deepen their understanding of evidence, both the evidence organisms leave behind and evidence in general. Often, students might see a hair, track, or other piece of evidence and jump to conclusions about what left it behind. They may also treat all evidence as equal, whether it’s actually flimsy or strong. This activity helps them slow down, make observations, and evaluate their evidence as strong, less strong, or weak. Later in the activity, students make ecosystem models from their notes and, through discussion, use them as evidence to try to better understand the ecosystem.

In this problem-based, blended learning mondule, students will investigate what is the single - most defining trait that makes  us human? Is it our highly developed speech, our imagination, creativity, or our upright walking posture?  Humans have mastered fire, developed tools, art, music, recorded our history, and accomplished a countless number of other things. In this module, students will explore genetics concepts regarding inheritance, natural selection, biology of the human brain, and our hominid evolution over the last two hundred thousand years. Students will utilize guided research, and independent work to formulate an argumentative essay, and substantiating their claim with evidence from their research. When the argumentative essay is completed, students will create a project from a choice board that demonstrates their understanding of one of the concepts of our humanity.