Learning with the Tree of Life
ToL Learning pages guide you through learning opportunities on the Tree of Life.
Treehouses
Treehouses are ToL web pages designed for learners.
Featured Treehouse
Fire Belly Toads and Video Game a fun and games treehouse
ToL Learning Site Map
Teachers, learners and science enthusiasts are invited to explore Life on Earth and share their learning by building ToL treehouses and publishing them on the Tree of Life. Broadening our contributor base and audience is part of our efforts to create an open access digital library about biodiversity. The Learning with the Tree of Life Project was begun with support from the U. S. National Science Foundation National Science Digital Library Program 
.
Read more about the ToL NSDL project.
- ToL Learning
- ToL Learning Tour
- Take a tour of the Tree of Life that introduces the content and structure of the ToL and the learning opportunities available on the site.
- ToL Learning for Kids
- See what the ToL has to offer especially for kids.
- ToL Learning for Teachers
- Go over the four levels that students can interact with the ToL: browsing ToL pages and media, learning about Phylogeny, contributing media and creating treehouses. Find out about opportunities and resources for teaching.
- ToL Learning for Science Enthusiasts
- ToL Learning for Scientists
- ToL scientific contributors and other professional scientists and science educators can author treehouse learning materials as well as other types of ToL pages (see the contribute section) and building treehouses.
- About ToL Learning
- It is our goal to improve both the content and functionality of the ToL, so that diverse visitors to the ToL web site will be inspired to embark on a journey of exploration, tracing the distribution of characteristics across the branches of the Tree of Life and pondering the forces that may have shaped the observed diversity of living things.
- Treehouses
- Treehouses are Tree of Life pages designed for learners, teachers and science enthusiasts of all ages. The information on these pages complements the scientific core content presented on ToL branch pages, leaf pages, other articles and notes. We don't have too many treehouses yet, but our goal is to soon have many treehouses sprinkled throughout the ToL.
- About Treehouses
- Find out background information about treehouses (ToL pages built by and intended for learners at all levels.)
- Building Treehouses
- Classrooms of all ages and individuals over 18 can become ToL learning materials contributors and learn how to make their own treehouse web pages using the ToL web-based Treehouse Editor. Treehouse builders will create, access and use digital media: images, audio, movies, and text. Builders can publish treehouse games, stories, investigations, art and cultural pieces, biographies, and teacher resources on the Tree of Life. Builders will learn about phylogenetic biology, new places, organisms and projects and connect their work to the larger bioscience community.
- Building for Teachers
- We invite you and your students (of all ages) to create treehouses! Get lessons, guidelines, rubrics, standards and more for guiding classroom treehouse building projects and find out how to create materials for your students.
- Treehouse Login: registered builders can login here. Login to access the Treehouse Manager and Editor, the Classroom Manager and the Media Manager.
- Registration
- Register as a treehouse builder!
- You can now try out our tools for building treehouses! Note that treehouses you create while trying out the treehouse building tools will not be saved.
- How to Begin Building Treehouses
- Assistance with the process of building a treehouse, from registering and logging in to creating, editing, saving and publishing.
- Start Class Treehouse Building Projects
- Assistance with the process of beginning classroom treehouse projects, from registering and managing projects to viewing and editing students' work. Preview Class Project Registration
- Treehouse Manager
- Classroom Manager (login required)
- Media Contributors
- Treehouse Builders Toolkit
- The toolkit provides Treehouse Builders with the basic information they need to get started building treehouses.
- Treehouse Building Steps
- Receive guidance for completing each part of your treehouse, including how to prepare for each step of the building process.
- How Rylan Created his Treehouse Investigation
- View how a treehouse builder used the Treehouse Editor to create his treehouse. This page walks you through each step of the editing process.
- Builders Planning Guide
- Assistance with how to plan treehouse pages.
- Building Activities: Fun Ways to Get Started Building Treehouses
- Get ideas for building treehouses!
- You can create investigations, stories, games, art and culture pages, teacher resources, webquests, biographies and portfolios to link together your treehouses.
- Get ideas for building treehouses!
- Documenting Your Work
- Find out why you should document your work and what you can document with multimedia (text, images, movies and sounds)
- Brainstorming Help
- Get ideas for how to brainstorm, organize and plan your page.
- Copyright Rules
- Multimedia Reference
- This page provides assistance with learning how to create digital media (audio, images and movies).
- Treehouse Basic Guidelines
- Review optional guidelines for components of your treehouse, such as information on the internet and media. This page helps you to think about the elements of a good treehouse page and provides some standards you can aim for with your page.
- Treehouse Page Design and Content
- Learn about some basic guidelines for treehouse page design and content. Examine some treehouse pages that conform to ToL guidelines and others that do not.
- Treehouse Tools
- The Treehouse Editor
- Try Out the Treehouse Editor
- Practice using the Treehouse Editor and download and view sample editing forms.
- Using the ToL Easy Editor to Add Text and Media ( no HTML code writing required)
- The ToL Easy Editor writes the HTML code needed to create web pages for you! You can use the Easy Editor to add colors, tables and other special formatting at the click of a button. You can also use the Easy Editor to edit the HTML code yourself.
- Transfer Text to the Easy Editor
- If you use a word processing program (such as MS Word) or a web editor (such as Dreamweaver) there are some steps you will need to follow to transfer your text into the Easy Editor.
- All Treehouse Editing Topics
- Attaching Your Work to a Branch of the Tree of Life
- Treehouses must be linked to branch and leaf pages, which provide the structural backbone for the ToL project, in order for them to be accessible to visitors to the Tree of Life.
- Adding Media
- How to get media for your treehouse page, upload media you create to the ToL database and insert media into a treehouse page.
- Get/Create Media
- Find Media on the ToL
- Multimedia Reference
- This page provides assistance with learning how to create digital media (audio, images and movies).
- Find Media on the WWW
- Upload Media to the ToL
- Help Filling our Image/Media Form
- Insert Media into Treehouses
- Copyright Rules
- How to get media for your treehouse page, upload media you create to the ToL database and insert media into a treehouse page.
- Tech Tips and Guidelines
- System Requirements
- Learn the system requirements for those who will contribute treehouses to the ToL.
- Bugs and Updates
- Text and Media Design Standards
- Go over the basics for ToL page elements.
- Copyright Rules
- This page will help you follow and understand copyright guidelines for text, images and other media that you will use in your treehouse, as well as your own role as a copyright holder.
- Multimedia Reference
- This page provides assistance with learning how to create digital media (audio, images and movies).
- All the HTML You Need
- If you would like to write you own HTML code see All the HTML You Need for assistance. We recommend you learn some HTML as it really helps to know how HTML works when you are a web designer, and it also makes fixing quirks in an HTML editor much simpler
- System Requirements
- Teacher Resources
- Access teacher resource treehouses and curriculum materials.
- Start Class Treehouse Building Projects
- Assistance with the process of beginning classroom treehouse projects, from registering and managing projects to viewing and editing students' work. Preview Class Project Registration
- Building for Teachers
- Related Links and Resources
- Start Class Treehouse Building Projects
- Access teacher resource treehouses and curriculum materials.
- Phylogenetic Biology
- On more than 3000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics. The pages in the Phylogenetic Biology section provide an introduction to some of the theoretical concepts that are important for the Tree of Life project.
- What is Phylogeny?
- Biologists estimate that there are about 5 to 100 million species of organisms living on Earth today. Evidence from morphological, biochemical, and gene sequence data suggests that all organisms on Earth are genetically related, and the genealogical relationships of living things can be represented by a vast evolutionary tree, the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life then represents the phylogeny of organisms, i. e., the history of organismal lineages as they change through time.
- Genetic Connections Between Organisms
- Phylogeny or Classification: What is the Tree of Life about?
- References about Phylogenetic Biology
The ToL National Science Digital Literacy (NSDL) Project
In order to improve the ToL's value as a tool for learning about organisms and their evolutionary history, and allow for user participation in the growth of the project, we have recently started a 2-year project with support from the U. S. National Science Foundation National Science Digital Library Program (DUE#0333715). The ToL began as a resource created by scientists for scientists, yet, since it was first published, the project has been used extensively by people who are not biologists. We have received abundant feedback from teachers, students, and lifelong learners, clearly reflecting a strong interest in both using the resources provided by ToL, and in actively participating in the development of the project.
The ToL NSDL project will initiate the collection of ToL content specifically aimed at K-16 learners, including exercises, media, instructional games, news items, and learner-generated materials. In addition, we will implement new technical features on the ToL site that will greatly improve the experience of visitors who are not professional biologists or advanced students. We plan to develop a variety of tools that will help the Tree of Life to become a place where students, teachers, lifelong learners and scientists can come together as a community of learners.
It is our goal to improve both the content and functionality of the ToL, so that diverse visitors to the ToL web site will be inspired to embark on a journey of exploration, tracing the distribution of characteristics across the branches of the Tree of Life and pondering the forces that may have shaped the observed diversity of living things. The success of the ToL NSDL project will depend greatly upon the participation of ToL users, both in collecting new materials and in guiding future development efforts.
The Tree of Life Web Project
is hosted by The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences and The University of Arizona Library