Lesson Plans

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    Lesson Plan
    Marine Arthropod Adaptations + Engineering Design
    Students explore the diversity and adaptations of marine arthropods.

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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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    Lesson Plan
    Phylum Mollusca: Macroevolution Module
    Through a sequence of “explore-before-explain” laboratory investigations, coupled with segments from the Shape of Life videos, students study molluscs in the present and their long  evolutionary history. The module includes those listed below, which can also stand alone.

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    Lesson Plan
    EXPLORING OCEAN MYSTERIES CURRICULUM
    The "Exploring Ocean Mysteries: From Dynamic Shores To the Deep Sea" curriculum consists of Lesson Plans and Resources that make it easy to teach the seven principles of Ocean Literacy.

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    Lesson Plan
    Annelids: Powerful and Capable Worms
    A list of questions with an emphasis on adaptations to use after viewing the video Annelids: Powerful and Capable Worms  

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    Lesson Plan
    SNIPS AND SNAILS AND GASTROPOD TAILS
    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
    Shell Shocked
    In this hands-on activity, students study the beautiful shells not as objects of beauty but as artifacts born of an evolutionary arms race.

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    Lesson Plan
    The Eastern Oyster: 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
    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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