Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
Knowledge
Students know:
- Oldest fossils are found deeper in the earth, younger fossils are found closer to the surface.
- Life evolved from simple to more complex forms of life.
- Periodic extinctions occurred throughout the history of earth.
- Fossils found closer to the surface more resemble modern species.
- Bacteria today closely resemble earliest fossils.
- Fossils of transitional species exist, and suggest evolution from one species to another (e.g., whale hind leg bones).
Skills
Students are able to:
- Organize the given data, including the appearance of specific types of fossilized organisms in the fossil record as a function of time, as determined by their locations in the sedimentary layers or the ages of rocks.
- Organize the data in a way that allows for the identification, analysis, and interpretation of similarities and differences in the data.
- Analyze and interpret the data to determine evidence for patterns of change in anatomical structures of organisms using the fossil record and the chronological order of fossil appearance in rock layers.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- The collection of fossils and their placement in chronological order is known as the fossil record. It records the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms throughout the history of life on earth.
Vocabulary
- Relative dating
- Fossil
- Evolve
- Extinct
- Mass extinction
- Analogous structures
- Homologous structures
- Diversity
- Vestigial structures
- Species
- Speciation
- Anatomical structures
- Chronological
