Featured Content
New Resources
NEW LESSON PLAN: Our Chordate Family Tree
Posted on October 4th, 2019
This new lesson plan is about our own family tree. We are chordates.
Your students will explore the evolution of the phylum Chordata by constructing a “family tree”—a diagram of evolutionary traits and animals, using cards showing Chordate traits. After watching the Chordate Shape of Life video, students revise their diagrams and add information, including examples of modern animals that exhibit the traits.
Highlights:
- Students will create evolutionary family trees.
- Students will understand and discuss key characteristics of chordate species orally and in writing.
- - Students will explain how common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence.
HAVE FUN exploring your family tree.
Featured Teacher
GET OUTSIDE AND DISCOVER THE NATURUAL WORLD with Carole Gonzalez, Science Department Chair, Maryvale Preparatory School
Posted on October 4th, 2019
We were first introduced to Carole through our Tree of Life Poster Contest where she shared her experience using Shape of Life resources in her classroom at Maryvale Prep School. What impressed us most is the way Carole credits her childhood experience in the outdoors to her lifelong love of science. It’s tough getting kids outside with all the ‘insta-info’ on screens. Carole’s approach certainly is encouraging.
Featured Scientist
Jeremy Goldbogen
Posted on July 11th, 2019
The Real Prince of Whales
Meet Jeremy Goldbogen. He tags whales. Yep, he pretty much has one of the coolest jobs of anyone we know.
Through Jeremy’s research we get to cruise the ocean on the back of whales and experience how they eat krill, make those amazing noises and maneuver with surprising agility. With a device the size of a book, Jeremy speaks volumes about the largest animals ever known to live on earth.
Featured Creature
Meet Boris, the Tetrapod Fossil
Posted on October 4th, 2019
Boris is a famous missing link in the evolution of chordates: he’s an early tetrapod (tetrapod means “four-legged”) fossil. Paleontologist Jenny Clack was so excited when she uncovered him that she named him Boris. Boris is a missing link because he represents an animal who may have been the first of its kind to make the transition from life in the sea to life on the land. This invasion of the land by vertebrates was a key moment in evolutionary history, leading to colonization of the land by four-limbed animals.
News
We'll be creating buzz with you in the Beehive State
Posted on October 4th, 2019
Visit us at NSTA conference on science education in Salt Lake City. We'll be giving away 5 Tree of Life Posters to the first visitors of our booth 205.
October 24–26, 2019 | Salt Palace Convention Center
See you in the Beehive State!
Tree of Life Poster Winners!
Posted on June 6th, 2019
WOW! We're overwhelmed by your words of support for Shape of Life. We had teachers from all over the world let us know how they use Shape of Life resources in their classrooms.
While everyone is a winner in our book, we had to limit the ‘Winners’ of our popular Ray Troll Tree of Life poster to twenty five. Fear not, we’ll definitely hold another contest soon.
In the meantime…
We Wish A Hearty Congratulations to our 2019 Shape of Life Poster Contest Winners!