Embryology

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/embryology

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific discipline?The branch of animal biology studying prenatal development from gametes to fetus
2. What is the interdisciplinary relevance?Crucial for evolutionary biology, medicine (teratology, ART), and conservation
3. Why do scientists study embryology?It helps us learn how cells become different parts of the body, find out why some babies have birth defects, and helps doctors with fertility treatments.
4. How did people learn that animals develop step by step?Early thinkers like Aristotle and later scientists like Karl Ernst von Baer showed that new structures appear gradually, not all at once.

Prenatal Development: The process of growth and differentiation occurring before birth.
Epigenesis: The theory that an organism develops from simple beginnings through sequential steps.
Teratology: The study of congenital abnormalities and birth defects.
Gastrulation: A critical stage in embryonic development where germ layers form.