A horse skull.
NCSE's Story Shorts — and in particular The Evolution of Horses — received a rave review (subscription required) in the Classrooms Materials & Media Review column of the October 2025 issue of The American Biology Teacher.
"The Story Shorts and optional Side Quests are unique because they produce driving questions, extend sensemaking, and identify misconceptions within one to two weeks of instruction, rather than months of traditional storyline curriculum," wrote the reviewer, Karen Cruse Suder. "The Story Short on the Evolution of Horses focuses on NGSS standard HS-LS4-5 ... Students answer the driving question 'What caused changes in horse species over the past 50 million years?'"
Suder concluded, "The Story Shorts and Side Quests provide an excellent exposure to storylines with a shorter time commitment without sacrificing the skills we hope our students garner through the process."
