SC15.3.9

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

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

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.

Vocabulary

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

Aligned Learning Resources

Dino News!
Fossils StudyJam
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