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Colorful echinoderms

lesson plans

Organized by Phyla

Lesson Plans

Molluscs

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    Lesson Plan
    The Mussel: A Not So Typical Mollusc
    Lab dissection of a representative of Class Bivalvia. Supported by several Shape of Life segments, students interpret bivalve adaptations as a radical case of divergent evolution: A simple ancestral snail with a mobile lifestyle, single dome-shaped shell, bilateral symmetry, and a head (“cephalization”) transformed into a headless, double-shelled, sedentary filter-feeder whose bilateral form is obscure.

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    Lesson Plan
    Life in the Fast Lane: From Hunted to Hunter
    Lab dissection of a squid, a member of Class Cephalopoda (along with the octopus and nautilus). Supported by several Shape of Life segments, students interpret squid adaptations as a radical case of divergent evolution: A line of ancestral snails abandoned the life of sluggish grazing and foraging in favor of a new niche as speedy open water predators.

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    Lesson Plan
    Squid: Instructor Guide
    Lab dissection of a squid, a member of Class Cephalopoda (along with the octopus and nautilus). Supported by several Shape of Life segments, students interpret squid adaptations as a radical case of divergent evolution: A line of ancestral snails abandoned the life of sluggish grazing and foraging in favor of a new niche as speedy open water predators. Students will understand that the shelled, but squid-like nautilus, is a “transitional form” en route to the swimming, shell- less cephalopods. Finally, they use the squid to explore another macroevolutionary pattern: convergent evolution.

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    Lesson Plan
    Molluscs: Gastropod - Instructor Guide
    A brief hands-on investigation of Class Gastropoda (snails and slugs), followed by a critical thinking exercise centered on segments of the Shape of Life. Students first examine the bodies and behavior of live slugs or snails, then use water balloons to model their unique style of locomotion, and finally tackle a series of analytical questions designed to cultivate a grasp of divergent evolution: the branching of a single ancestral form into multiple new forms for diverse new functions, niches, and habitats.

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    Lesson Plan
    Molluscs: The Survival Game
    A list of questions about the characteristics of Molluscs to use after viewing the video Molluscs: the Survival Game.

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Echinoderms

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    Lesson Plan
    Echinoderms: the Ultimate Animal
    Students answer questions based on the video - Echinoderms: the Ultimate Animal and other videos about echinoderms.

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    Artful Echinoderms
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    Artful Echinoderms
    Engaging Students with Echinoderm Phenomena, Adaptations, and Art

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Chordates

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    Lesson Plan
    Our Chordate Family Tree
    Students explore the evolution of the phylum Chordata by constructing a "family tree" - a diagram of evolutionary traits and animals.

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    Lesson Plan
    Chordates - We're All Family
    Students answer questions based on the video Chordates: We’re All Family.

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General Animals

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    Darwins Tree
    Lesson Plan
    A Pipe Cleaner Model of Animal Evolution
    The evolutionary tree shown here was drawn by Charles Darwin, a scientist who lived more than 150 years ago. It was Darwin, and another man named Alfred Russel Wallace that came up with the idea of natural selection, which is one of the ways that life evolves. Darwin wasn’t the first person to suggest that life evolves, the idea had been around for a while, but he was one of the first to use evidence to explain his observations about life.

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