Exhibits and investigations
Note: Resources with an asterisk (*) are not being maintained and are presented as-is.
Understanding Evolution (for grades 5-16)
This rich website helps you understand what evolution is, how it works, how it factors into your life, how research in evolutionary biology is performed, and how ideas in this area have changed over time.
Understanding Science
How science really works. Understanding Science gives an inside look at the general principles, methods, and motivations that underlie all of science.
How did plants change our planet? (for grades K-8)
Botanist Dr. Nathalie Nagalingum (California Academy of Sciences) explains how, more than 400 million years ago, early plants played a notable role in adjusting Earth’s physical surface as well as our planet’s climate.
Comic strip: Survival of the sneakiest (for grades 9-12)
This Understanding Evolution comic follows the efforts of a male cricket as he tries to attract a mate, and in the process, debunks common myths about what it means to be evolutionarily “fit.”
Similarities and differences: Understanding homology and analogy (for grades 9-12)
This Understanding Evolution interactive investigation explains what homologies and analogies are, how to recognize them, and how they evolve.
Understanding Geologic Time* (for grades 5-10)
Introduces students to geologic time, the evidence for events in Earth’s history, relative and absolute dating techniques, and the significance of the geologic time scale.
Getting Into the Fossil Record* (for grades 5-10)
Helps students gain a basic understanding of what a fossil is and how a fossil forms.
Stories From the Fossil Record* (for grades 5-8)
Provides students with a basic understanding of how fossils can be used to interpret the past. There are four different pathways to explore: biodiversity, geologic time, paleoecology and past lives.
Adventures at Dry Creek* (for grades 5-8)
Virtually engages students in scientific research. Students join “science mentors” to gather data and interpret direct and indirect evidence to propose multiple hypotheses of what life was like in Montana 60-70 million years ago.
What Did T. rex Taste Like?* (for grades 7-14)
Provides an introduction to cladistics (a way of organizing living things by common ancestry and evolutionary relationships) and involves students in posing hypotheses about past life based upon evolutionary history.
The Evolution of Flight* (for grades 7-10)
Examines evidence from the fossil record, behavior, biomechanics and cladistic analysis to interpret the sequence of events that led to flight in the dinosaur lineage. Students gather, organize and analyze data and then propose hypotheses about the evolution of flight in birds.
The Arthropod Story (for grades 5-10)
This Understanding Evolution interactive investigation takes students through the amazing evolutionary history of arthropods, introducing them to taxonomy, paleontology, natural history and principles of evolution.
Life Has a History (for grades K-12)
Introduces students to the history of life and how it results in today’s biodiversity.