Understanding Evolution

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Understanding Evolution

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Home → Teach Evolution → Lessons and Teaching Tools → Teaching Resources Database → Stories from the Fossil Record

Stories from the Fossil Record

Grade Level(s):

  • 6-8
  • 9-12

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Online activity or lab

Time: One to two class periods

Overview

This web-based module provides students with a basic understanding of how fossils can be used to interpret the past.

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  • [History of life: Grades 6-8] Present-day life forms are descended from past life forms; all life is related. (LS4.A)
  • [History of life: Grades 6-8] Geological change and biological evolution are linked.
  • [History of life: Grades 6-8] Most species that once lived on Earth have gone extinct. (LS4.A)
  • [History of life: Grades 9-12] Geological change and biological evolution are linked.
  • [History of life: Grades 9-12] Tectonic plate movement has affected the evolution and distribution of living things. (ESS1.C)
  • [History of life: Grades 9-12] Living things have had a major influence on the composition of the atmosphere and on the surface of the planet. (ESS2.E)
  • [History of life: Grades 9-12] Mass extinctions occur.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 6-8] The patterns of life's diversity through time provide evidence of evolution. (LS4.A)
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 6-8] An organism's features reflect its evolutionary history.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 6-8] Fossils provide evidence of past life. (LS4.A)
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 6-8] The fossil record contains organisms with transitional features.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 9-12] An organism's features reflect its evolutionary history.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 9-12] The fossil record documents the biodiversity of the past.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 9-12] The fossil record contains organisms with transitional features.
  • [Nature of science: Grades 9-12] Scientific knowledge is open to question and revision as we come up with new ideas and discover new evidence. (P4, P6, NOS3)
  • [Nature of science: Grades 9-12] Scientists test their ideas using multiple lines of evidence. (P6, NOS2)
  • [Nature of science: Grades 9-12] Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable.
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 6-8] Scientists use anatomical features to infer the relatedness of taxa. (LS4.A)
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 9-12] Scientists use fossils (including sequences of fossils showing gradual change over time) to learn about past life.
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 9-12] Scientists use the geographic distribution of fossils and living things to learn about the history of life.
  • Disciplinary Core Idea LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
  • Disciplinary Core Idea ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth
  • Disciplinary Core Idea ESS2.E: Biogeology
  • NOS Matrix understanding category 2. Scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence.
  • NOS Matrix understanding category 3. Scientific knowledge is open to revision in light of new evidence.
  • Science and Engineering Practice 4. Analyzing and interpreting data
  • Science and Engineering Practice 6. Constructing explanations and designing solutions
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