In this simulation activity, students experiment with a population of M&M candies or paper dot "beetles" to test how well each color is adapted to survive on a field of colorful wrapping paper or fabric. Students act as predators and see that... (View More) camouflaged beetles survive predation preferentially. Students reflect on how the activity could be modified to better simulate the process of predation-based natural selection. This activity is supported by a textbook chapter, "Origin of Species," part of the unit, "Losing Biodiversity," in Global Systems Science (GSS), an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact. (View Less)

In this kinesthetic activity, students take on roles of either photons or gas molecules. Photons signal a change from visible light to infrared with a piece of folded construction paper, simulating absorption by the Earth's surface and reradiation... (View More) to space. The play is guided by flipping a coin, and students see how stochastic processes result in 70% of visible protons being absorbed and reradiated as infrared. This activity is supported by a textbook chapter, What is the Greenhouse Effect?, part of the unit, Climate Change, in Global Systems Science (GSS), an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact. (View Less)

Students learn about the connections between organisms in the ocean in this kinesthetic activity. Each student is given a card, identifying an organism, its food source, and its predators. Holding the end of a ball of yarn firmly, the ball is passed... (View More) from organism to organism as they are linked in the predator-prey food web. Once all students are connected in the food web, an extinction event is simulated by removing an organism. Those students remaining pull lightly on the web, to demonstrate how other organisms are affected by the loss. Students identify the impact of biodiversity loss throughout the food web. This activity is supported by a textbook chapter, One Global Ocean, part of the unit, Losing Biodiversity, in Global Systems Science (GSS), an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact. (View Less)