Transcript Digging Into the Past

Digging Into the Past
Earth and Life Science
Fossil Evidence
Earth Science
Geology and Fossil Evidence
S6E5 Students will investigate the scientific
view of how the earth’s surface is formed.
f. Describe how fossils show evidence of the
changing surface and climate of the Earth.
Related Content Standards
S6E5.
b. Classify rocks by their process of
formation.
c. Describe processes that change rocks
and the surface of the earth.
d. Recognize that lithospheric plates
constantly move and cause major
geological events on the earth’s surface.
Life Science
History of Life and Fossil Evidence
S7L5. Students will understand evolution
of living organisms through inherited
characteristics that promote survival.
c. Explain how the fossil record found in
sedimentary rock provides evidence for
the long history of changing life forms.
Related Content Standards
S7L4.
b. Explain in a food web that sunlight is the source of
energy and that this energy moves from organism to
organism.
c. Recognize that changes in environmental conditions
can affect the survival of both individuals and entire
species.
S7L5. Students will examine the evolution of living
organisms through inherited characteristics that
promote survival of organisms and the survival of
successive generations of their offspring.
a.
b.
Explain how physical characteristics of organisms have
changed over successive generations (e.g. Darwin’s finches
and peppered moths of Manchester)
Describe ways in which species on earth have evolved due to
natural selection.
Characteristics of Science Standards
S6CS1. Students will explore the importance of curiosity, honesty,
openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these
traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works.
S6CS4. Students will use tools and instruments for observing,
measuring, and manipulating equipment and materials in
scientific activities.
S6CS5. Students will use the ideas of system, model, change, and
scale in exploring scientific and technological matters.
S5CS6. Students will communicate scientific ideas and activities
clearly.
S6CS7. Students will question scientific claims and arguments
effectively.
S6CS8. Students will investigate the characteristics of scientific
knowledge and how it is achieved.
S6CS10. Student will enhance reading in all curriculum areas….
Big Ideas
•
•
•
•
Evidence
Fossils
Climate
Changing Surface of
the Earth
• History of the Earth
•
•
•
•
Evidence
Fossils
Changing Life Forms
History of the Earth
Understandings
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scientists use evidence to explain the history of the Earth.
The Earth’s surface is constantly changing.
Rock formations provide evidence.
From Earth’s rocks we can learn about changes that have occurred in the
Earth’s surface, we can find evidence of changes in the Earth’s climate, and
we can find evidence of organisms of long ago.
Fossils are the most important source of information about life on Earth in
the distant past.
The principle that geological forces seen in operation at present should be
used to explain the past history of the Earth is known as uniformitarianism.
The order in which rocks are layered is an important clue to Earth’s history.
The Law of Superposition is fundamental to the interpretation of Earth’s
history.
Layers are usually formed horizontally, with the oldest rock strata on the
bottom and the youngest on top.
Sedimentary rocks are formed particle by particle and bed by bed, and the
layers are piled one on top of the other.
Rock layers reveal data about the locations of earlier oceans, mountains,
plains, and plateaus.
Dating rocks allows scientists to study the most ancient rocks and refer to
the history as a geologic timetable.
Understandings
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scientists use evidence to explain the history of life on the Earth.
Some organisms have survived Earth’s changing surface and climate.
Some organisms have not survived Earth’s changing surface and climate.
Organisms have changed through time.
Rock formations provide evidence.
From Earth’s rocks we can learn about changes that have occurred in the Earth’s surface,
we can find evidence of changes in the Earth’s climate, and we can find evidence of
organisms of long ago.
Fossils are the most important source of information about life on Earth in the distant past.
The order in which rocks are layered is an important clue to Earth’s history.
Layers are usually formed horizontally, with the oldest rock strata on the bottom and the
youngest on top.
Dating rocks allows scientists to study the most ancient rocks and refer to the history as a
geologic timetable.
Scientists can learn many things about organisms of long ago, such as their development,
body structure, habits, and the climate in which they lived.
Organisms have changed through time and older species are ancestors of younger ones.
Index fossils had a short, well-known time of existence and are used to determine the age
of rocks precisely.
Many thousands of layers of sedimentary rock provide evidence for the long history of the
earth and for the long history of changing life forms whose remains are found in the rocks.
More recently deposited rock layers are more likely to contain fossils resembling existing
species.
Fossils are formed in many different ways.
Stubby Dino Find Blurs Image of LongNeck Lumberers
John Roach
National Geographic News
June 1, 2005
Paleontologists today unveiled a sauropod
dinosaur with a stubby neck. The discovery
smudges the common picture of sauropods
as unspecialized, lumbering dinosaurs that
used very long necks to munch away at any
greenery in sight, including treetops.
Questions to Consider
• Can we stop the earth from changing?
• Why was Nebraska the first state to
require oceanography as a part of its
science curriculum?
• Why have fossilized sea life been found in
rock at the top of Mt. Everest and the
remains of a lush tropical rainforest been
found buried under miles of ice and snow
at the South Pole?
Questions to Consider
• How can fossils tell us what ancient environments were like?
• Evidence left by early people is called artifacts. Some
examples are arrowheads, ancient beads, and animal skins
used as clothing. Why do you think we don’t call them
fossils?
• Why was Nebraska the first state to require oceanography as
a part of its science curriculum?
• Why have fossilized sea life been found in rock at the top of
Mt. Everest and the remains of a lush tropical rainforest been
found buried under miles of ice and snow at the South Pole?
• Can you find fossils where you live? Where do you think you
would go to look for fossils?
• Do all organisms adapt or die?
• How do scientists accurately depict organisms from only a
fragment of the organism found in a fossil? Or do they?
Knowledge and Skills
• How to use scientific
language correctly
• What a fossil is and how
it is formed
• How we obtain evidence
• What is climate
• How fossils show climate
change and changes in
the earth’s surface
• Make simulated fossils
• Simulate/explain changes
in earth’s history
• Research theories—KT
event, Ice Age evidence,
Plate tectonics,
superposition,
uniformitarianism
• Simulate geologic dating
• Sketch evidence of rock
layering and fossil
evidence
Stage 2– Evidence of the Evidence
Performance Task:
Part One:
You are a construction worker in charge of
digging the foundation of a building in a
downtown area of a large city. You find
evidence of fossils. What do you do?
What is the evidence? How do you know
they are fossils? Write a newspaper
article where you were interviewed about
your job and the find.
Part Two:
You contact the site manager who must talk to the city
council and building owners about the evidence. Write a
telephone skit telling about the resulting conference call
and what will happen next.
• Products: The class is divided into characters and groups
for a debate over what will happen to the project.
Suggested characters and groups include
• Construction worker
• Site Manager
• City Council members
• Building owners and their lawyers
• Professor of geology from a local university
• Curator of a natural history museum
• Members of the public
• News reporter from local media
After the debate,
• Write a position paper or make a display about
this scenario.
• Choose a location in Georgia and explain what
kind of fossil evidence would be found there.
• What may have caused the fossil evidence?
• What are some reasons for preserving or not
preserving fossil evidence?
• Could you find history of fossil evidence in that
location? Site sources.
• Use the following terms correctly: rock formation,
superposition, uniformitarianism, fossil formation
Knowledge
•
•
•
•
How to use the scientific language correctly,
What is a fossil?
How do we obtain fossil evidence?
Biographies of paleontologists and geologists
such as William Smith, Georges Cuvier, and
Alexandre Brongniart, Alfred Wallace, and
Charles Darwin
• Geologic Timetable
• The difference between threatened, endangered
and extinct organisms
Skills
• Make simulated fossils—prints, casts, molds,
etc.
• Simulate/explain changes in organisms through
earth’s history
• Research theories—Natural Selection
• Explain geologic dating
• Explain how index fossils show evidence of ages
of rocks
• Sketch evidence of rock layering and fossil
evidence
Performance Task:
You are a paleontologist working on a new dig.
You have found evidence of a new organism.
Make a display to show your findings:
1. Classification based on the evidence you have located
2. Environment of the organism
3. How did the organism get its food? Give examples of
evidence from fossil remains.
4. Where did the organism live? How do you know?
5. Why is the organism no longer alive?
6. What is the organism most like? Compare the fossil
remains to a current organism.
Other Evidence
• Observation
– Sketches of rock layers
and fossil evidence
– Demonstrate how a fossil
can be formed using sand,
water, and an object such
as seashell
– Simulations of fossil
production
– Simulations depicting rocks
as they change: layering,
folding, faulting, etc.
– Simulations of fossil digs
• Label and sequence
pictures depicting fossil
formations
• Tell or write what a fossil
is and what information it
can provide.
• Research geological
events, principles of
geology, and biographies
• Cartoons, comic strips, or
Powerpoint presentations
of major geologic events
impacting climate
changes
• Group reports (jigsaw) of
biographies
Other Evidence
• Constructed response about
extinct, threatened, and
endangered organisms
• Examples of adaptation
• Selected response test about
evidence (Examples included
in samples)
• Matching evidence found in
fossils to changes in food
getting: beaks and feet
• Group reports (jigsaw
reporting) of biographies
• Sketches of rock layers and
fossil evidence
• Simulations of fossil production
• Simulations of fossil digs
• Research on geological
events, fossil finds in Georgia,
and biographies
• Cartoon or PowerPoint
presentation of major
geological events impacting
climate changes
• Label and sequence pictures
depicting fossil formation
• Geologic Timetable
Language Marlee’s students will use in
this unit are not necessarily the same
terms that would be found on a
standardized assessment.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Evidence
Archeology
Paleontology
Sedimentary rock
Extinction
Fossil
Mold
Print
Amber
Tar
Remains
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cast
Index fossil
Layers
Superposition
Uniformitarianism
Relative dating
Plate tectonics
Ice Age evidence
KT event
Adaptation
Diversity
Self-Assessment Questions
• What did you accomplish today?
• What strengths do you think you showed in your
work?
• How did you feel about the topic we investigated
today?
• How well do you think you understood the
activity we did today?
• What questions do you have about what we did
today?
• Are there some things you don’t understand?
• What do you think is the most important thing
you learned in science this week?
Multiple Choice Tests
• The next set of slides are questions from
released state tests.
• http://edinformatics.com/testing/testing.htm
• Instruction can be written to guide the
students in understanding the concept at a
different level.
Fossils of the fern Glossopteris have been found in
Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and South
America. How do scientists explain this
observation?
A. The wind blew the seeds across the oceans
from continent to continent.
B. The fern developed independently on each
continent.
C. The continents were at one time joined
together and then moved apart.
D. The fern had adaptations to survive the
different environments of the continents.
Scientists compare layers of rock to each
other in order to determine the
A. Relative age of rocks.
B. Composition of rocks.
C. Amount of fossils in rocks.
D. Chemical composition of rocks.
The best evidence that two land areas
were once connected is the
discovery that both land masses
A. Have the same climate.
B. Are in the same stage of
succession.
C. Exist along the same line of
longitude.
D. Have similar types of rocks and
fossils.
Fossil fuels were formed from?
A. Uranium
B. Sea water
C. Sand and gravel
D. Dead plants and animals
Which of the following would cause a longterm (lasting thousands of years) change
to Earth?
A. Spring flooding along the Saint John
River
B. A hurricane coming north from the banks
of the Carolinas
C. A volcano erupting such as Mount
Pinatubo in the Philippines
D. Tornadoes spawned from cold and warm
air clashing
As a scientist was hiking up a mountain, she found
fossils of seashells in some of the rocks.
Which is a reasonable conclusion she can
make?
A. The rocks were formed when molten lava was
cooled.
B. Shelled sea organisms once inhabited forested
mountains.
C. The rocks were formed in an ocean and later
uplifted when the mountain was formed.
D. The fossil seashells were carried up from an
ocean and embedded in the rocks by strong
winds.
Which BEST describes the movement
of the plates that make up Earth's
surface over millions of years?
A. They moved for millions of years but
now have stopped.
B. They stayed the same for millions of
years but are now moving.
C. They have been continually moving.
D. They have never moved.
Fossils similar to marine life found in the
oceans today have been found in rocks
on top of mountains. How can this be
explained?
A. The marine life can live on land or sea.
B. Marine organisms were once able to
breathe air.
C. The rocks in which the fossils were found
were formed under an ocean.
D. Marine organisms have evolved from
land organisms.
Fossils are evidence of living things that were alive
many, many years ago and often consist of the
skeletons of creatures imbedded in rock. Why
don’t fossils contain the animal’s soft tissues,
as well?
A. Because the soft tissues decayed before the
fossil could be formed
B. Because the rock breaks down soft tissues.
C. Because the soft tissues were always eaten by
scavengers.
D. Because the rock always smashed the soft
tissues flat.
Which BEST describes the surface of the Earth
over billions of years?
A. A flat surface is gradually pushed up into
higher and higher mountains until the Earth is
covered with mountains.
B. High mountains gradually wear down until
most of the Earth is at sea level.
C. High mountains gradually wear down as new
mountains are continuously being formed over
and over again.
D. High mountains and flat plains stay side by
side for billions of years with little change.