Classroom Resource

Fossils StudyJam

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

3, 4

Overview

Fossils are preserved traces or remains of living things. Paleontologists who study fossils look for teeth, bones, shells, petrified wood, molds and casts, traces or carbon shadows, or even entire animals.

The classroom resource provides a slide show that will describe fossils and how they form. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding. 

Science (2015) Grade(s): 3

SC15.3.9

Analyze and interpret data from fossils (e.g., type, size, distribution) to provide evidence of organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago (e.g., marine fossils on dry land, tropical plant fossils in arctic areas, fossils of extinct organisms in any environment).

Unpacked Content

UP:SC15.3.9

Vocabulary

  • Analyze
  • Interpret
  • Data
  • Fossils
  • Type (mold fossils, cast fossils, trace fossils, true form fossils)
  • Size
  • Distribution
  • Evidence
  • Organisms
  • Environment
  • Extinct
  • Relationships

Knowledge

Students know:
  • That fossils represent plants and animals that lived long ago.
  • The relationships between the fossils of organisms and the environments in which they lived.
  • The relationships between types of fossils and the current environments where similar organisms are found.
  • That some fossil represent organisms that lived long ago and have no modern counterparts.
  • The relationships between fossils of organisms that lived long ago and their modern counterparts.
  • The relationships between existing animals and the environments in which they currently live.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Organize data about fossils of animals and plants.
  • Identify and describe relationships in the data to make sense of fossils.
  • Interpret data to make sense of fossils.
  • Provide evidence based on data from fossils.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Fossils provide evidence of organisms that lived long ago.
  • Features of fossils provide evidence of organisms that lived long ago and of what types of environments those organisms must have lived in.
  • Science assumes consistent patterns in natural systems (based on relationships found in the data).
  • Environments can look very different now than they did a long time ago.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
Science (2015) Grade(s): 4

SC15.4.12

Construct explanations by citing evidence found in patterns of rock formations and fossils in rock layers that Earth changes over time through both slow and rapid processes (e.g., rock layers containing shell fossils appearing above rock layers containing plant fossils and no shells indicating a change from land to water over time, a canyon with different rock layers in the walls and a river in the bottom indicating that over time a river cut through the rock).

Unpacked Content

UP:SC15.4.12

Vocabulary

  • Evidence
  • Patterns
  • Rock Formations
  • Fossils
  • Rock Layers
  • Landscape
  • Marine fossils

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Different rock layers found in areas can show either marine fossils or land fossils.
  • Ordering of rock layers (e.g. layer with marine fossils found below layer with land fossils).
  • Presence of particular fossils (e.g., shells, land plants) in specific rock layers as evidence of Earth's changes over time.
  • The occurrence of events (e.g., earthquakes) due to Earth forces.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Observe evidence from rock patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
  • Identify evidence from rock patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
  • Articulate and describe from evidence patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
  • Use reasoning to connect the evidence to support the explanation including the identification of a specific pattern of rock layers and fossils.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earth forces, such as earthquakes. The presence and location of certain fossil types indicate the order in which rock layers were formed.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns
Link to Resource
https://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/rocks-minerals-landform…

CR Resource Type

Interactive/Game

Resource Provider

http://studyjams.scholastic.com/
Accessibility
License

License Type

Custom

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.scholastic.com/terms.htm

Comments or Notes

The test may be completed as a whole group or independently on student devices. 

Approved Date

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