Content Area: Science
Unit Plan Title: Earth Science – History of the Earth
Grade(s) 8
Overview of Unit
From the time that the earth formed from a nebula 4.6 billion years ago, it has been evolving as a result of geologic, biological, physical and chemical processes.
Essential Question(s) and Enduring Understandings (in grade appropriate terminology).
How do geologic events occurring today provide insight Earth’s past?
Earth’s components form systems. These systems continually interact at different rates of time, affecting the shape of the Earth’s surface regionally and globally.
Content Statements and CPI
Content: Today’s planet is very different than early Earth. Evidence for one-celled forms of life, bacteria, extends back more than 3.5 billion years.
5.4.8.B.1 Correlate the evolution of organisms and the environmental conditions on Earth as they changed throughout geologic time
Content: Fossils provide evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed. The principle of
Uniformitarianism makes possible the interpretation of Earth’s history. The same Earth processes that have occurred in the past occur today.
5.4.8.B.2 Evaluate the appropriateness of increasing the human population in a region (e.g., barrier islands, pacific northwest, Midwest United States) based on the region's history of catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and floods.

Student Learning Targets/Objectives: should be connected to content statements. Students will be able to: e.g.: 1- Articulate predictions and imagine ways to test those predictions, using practice gained through class explorations of water quality in the school pond and water supply.
Students will be able to explain and illustrate:
 Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms and entire species.
5F/M2b
 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. 5F/M3a
 More recently deposited rock layers are more likely to contain fossils resembling existing species. 5F/M3b
 Most species that have lived on the earth are now extinct. Extinction of species occurs when the environment changes and the individual organisms of that species do not have the traits necessary to survive and reproduce in the changed environment. 5F/M4** (NSES
Strategies/Justifications
1.
Notebooking will help students clarify their own thinking, identify weaknesses and document progress.
2.
Probe and lesson starter questions will help direct student thinking, introduce the topic and uncover misconceptions.
3.
Use of Turning Point clickers will reinforce ideas, check for understanding and measure prior knowledge
4.
Labs and activities will provide hands on inquiry based learning and allow students to work together collaboratively to solve a problem or discover an enduring understanding
5.
Online resources give visual aid to the students and present information in a different way.

Activities, Lessons, and Assessments
Teaching Point: Understand the history of life and the biodiversity we see today.
Focus Question/notebook: How can we use fossil records to illustrate evolution?
Interactive Webquest - Life has a History http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/intro/
Worksheet (see attached)
Teaching Point: Differentiate between what is considered a fossil and what is not and how they teach us about the past.
Notebook: How are fossils formed?
What is a fossil/what is not a fossil? How fossils are formed.
Science Court - Fossils
Teaching Point: Arrange fossils from oldest to youngest using the process of relative dating
Notebook: How can we determine the age of a fossil?
How do we date fossils and past life?
Dating The Fossil Record Activity (See attached)
Teaching Point: Using a timeline to visualize major events in Earth’s history.
Notebook: If Earth began at 12:00 AM, at what time would humans show up? Explain your reasons.
Earth’s Geologic Timeline – Using a football field or 24 hours. (see attached) http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/geo_activity.html
Students will create a timeline of the history of the Earth, filling in when major events, species domination, extinctions occurred
BONUS ACTIVITY
Relative Dating of Fossils http://paleobiology.si.edu/dinosaurs/interactives/dig/main.html
Virtual Dinosaur dig
Teaching Point: Understand the changes in the cranium have helped scientists understand the evolution of humans .
Notebook: How has man changed from 3 million years ago to today?
Examination of the hominid skull over time. How has it changed, what can it tell us about our ancestors? http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/hom.cran.html
Teaching Point: Scientists can use clues from pieces of fossils to form ideas about past life.
Notebook: How can scientists use just a few pieces of fossil to describe an extinct species?
What can fossils tell us about species that once lived on Earth? Use pictures of pieces of fossils and have students decide what that animal was like and what kind of environment it lived in. Can also be a dig with bones of an animal that students can then reconstruct.
Show full pictures of dinosaurs and discuss what scientists have been able to tell about them and how their concepts have changed over time.
Teaching Point: Each period of Earth’s history is identified by the geologic and biologic characteristics of the time and are separated by major geologic and paleontological events.
Notebook: Describe what happens during a “Mass extinction event” How many have there been in Earth’s history?
Characteristics of each period of Earth’s history (including life) http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth . Jigsaw activity with each group talking
Time Frame
1-2 hours
3 hours
1 hour
1-2 hours
1-2
2 hours
2-4 hours
2-3 hours

about a time period.
Teaching Point: Expel various misconceptions, such as species are able to change spontaneously or pass on adaptations to their offspring
Notebook: After the Industrial Revolution began, soot from factories coated tree trunks in some parts of England, turning the tree trunks black. Before long, most peppered moths were black and only a small minority was gray. Explain how this happened.
Formative assessment – what they know about adaptations
Understanding misconceptions such as Species changing at will or in one generation
Activity
Discuss common misconceptions (see attached)
Go over vocabulary (perceived and actual) and basic concepts related to adaptation using clickers
Teaching Point: Natural Selection is how genetic information vital to the survival and adaptations of a species is passed on from one generation to the next.
Continue with natural selection with a choice of the following activities http://www.smithlifescience.com/MLdarwin.htm
(has great links, plans, etc) 4 types of natural selection (over production, genetic variation, selection, adaptation)
Natural Selection activity w/ pom poms
Life spans – shorter the life span, quicker the change
Galapagos – Beyond adaptation resource
Survival of the fittest: Activity (game) revisit project – change the environment
Give list of 7 (big eyes, opposable thumbs) adaptations and create animal and type of environment based on adaptations
Field Trip to American Museum of Natural History
1 hour
8 hours
1 Day

Resources that need to be ordered or located.
Science Court Fossils
Hominid Skulls – Wards has a great set! (2 sets per school)
Cosmos! DVD set (by Carl Sagan)
Fossils Video Lab (Fisher Scientific)
Fossil Collection
Technology to be integrated (tools, equipment, software, and online learning)
Geologic Time DVD (Science Kit)
History of Earth CD ROM (Science Kit)