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EVOLUTION OF LIFE

Evolution of life
Fossils (mostly invertebrates)
Dinosaurs
Adaptation to environment
Preservation

EVOLUTION OF LIFE

Title & Description Activity More Ideas and Video
How many Beany Beetles? - the evolution game
Investigating evolution by adaptation and natural selection
Evolution game Teaching video
How many Great Great Great Great Grandparents?
Finding out how we inherit our characteristics
How many Great Grandparents? Teaching video
Pattern of continents/oceans versus the pattern of life on Earth (ELI+)
How can the link between continental patterns and life on Earth be explained?
Continents versus biodiversity  
Scary scorpions
Make your own scorpion and imagine how it lived
Scary scorpions  
Sorting out the evolution of evolution headlines (ELI+)
Lay out your own timeline of how the theory of evolution developed
Evolution of evolution  
Time-line in your own backyard
Hang pictures of the important events in the history of life on a string time-line
Time-line in your own backyard Teaching video
Extension
Video
Toilet roll of time
Make a geological timeline to take home
Toilet roll of time Video

FOSSILS (mostly invertebrates)

Title & Description Activity More Ideas and Video
Ammonites: the ups and downs
How did ammonites adjust their position in the sea?
Ammonites: the ups and downs  
Curious creatures
Using fossil and modern evidence to work out the lifestyles of extinct animals
Curious creatures Video (Cambrian explosion song)
Fossil or not?
Discussion about what is a fossil and what is not
Fossil or not? Teaching video
Fossilise! (ELI Early years)
A game showing how fossils form and survive
Fossilise!  
How could I become fossilised?
Thinking through fossilisation in the context of me or you
How could I become fossilised? Teaching video
Extension
Mary Anning - Mother of Palaeontology
“A woman in a man’s world”
Mary Anning Teaching video
Animation by Anna Humphries, BBC website “The girl who helped discover dinosaurs”
Picturing Fossils - 1
Visualise and draw fossils from a verbal description
Picturing fossils - 1  
Picturing Fossils - 2
Visualise and draw fossils from a verbal description
Picturing fossils - 2  
Running the fossilisation film backwards
Bringing a fossil ‘back to life’
Running fossilisation film backwards Teaching video
Shell shake - survival of the toughest
Why is the fossil record incomplete?
Shell shake Video
Trace fossils - burrows or borings
What evidence do living organisms leave behind in rocks?
Trace fossils Teaching video
Trace fossils - Picturing trace fossils and other strange shapes
Visualise and draw trace fossils and sedimentary structures from a verbal description
Picturing trace fossils  
Trail-making
Making your own "fossil" animal trails
Trail-making  
What was it like to be there? - bringing a fossil to life
A series of questions to bring fossils, and the environments in which they lived, to life
What was it like to be there? - bringing a fossil to life Teaching video
Get geo-creative
Who ate the ammonite?
A Jurassic food web - from fossil evidence
Jurassic_menu Extension

DINOSAURS

Title & Description Activity More Ideas and Video
Dig up the dinosaur
Become a fossil hunter and dig up a dinosaur
Dig up the dinosaur Extension
Video
Dinosaur death - did it die or was it killed?
Was this a Cretaceous crime scene?
- using rock and fossil forensic evidence to find out
Dinosaur death - did it die or was it killed?  
Dinosaur in the yard
Was Iguanodon strolling in the sun, or fleeing in fear?
Dinosaur in the yard Extension
How to weigh a dinosaur
Using a dinosaur footprint impression to estimate how heavy the animal was
How to weigh a dinosaur  
Let’s weigh a dinosaur
How can a plastic model reveal the mass of an actual dinosaur?
Let’s weigh a dinosaur!  
Meeting of the dinosaurs - 100 million years ago
The evidence given by dinosaur footprints
Meeting of the dinosaurs Teaching video
Extension

ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENT

Title & Description Activity More Ideas and Video
Sea shell survival
How are common sea shells adapted to their habitats?
Sea shell survival Teaching video
Fifty million years into the future
Investigating how animals become adapted to their environments
Life in the future Box School animals
Space survival: how could we survive a year in a dome?
Pupils plan to survive for a year in a sealed dome in a desert
Space survival: how could we survive a year in a dome?  

PRESERVATION

Title & Description Activity More Ideas and Video
From hard-boiled eggs to bog bodies
An investigation into the effects of tannin and mild acid
Bog bodies