UNDERSTANDING EARTH’S HISTORY:
An Introduction to the Principles that Unveil Our Past
Enduring Understandings (ideas for long-term storage and use by students):
 The same processes that occur today occurred in the past.
 Rocks provide key information about Earth’s past conditions and life.
 Life on Earth has taken billions of years to progress to its current status.
 Populations change over time to become better suited to its surroundings.
 Every organism does not become a fossil, so the fossil record, while useful, is imperfect.
Day One
Performance Standard(s)
 SES3e. Explain the processes that transport and deposit material in terrestrial and marine
sedimentary basins which result in sedimentary rock.
Essential Question
Why is it that fossils are only found in sedimentary rocks?
Activating Strategy
 Students will review the processes that form sedimentary rock by viewing a “rock” music
video. It was made and performed by some of my former Earth Systems students and posted
to TeacherTube.
Teaching Strategies
 Using a three-column chart, we will compare/contrast the processes that form the different
rock types and propose which would be the best medium for preserving past life.
 In groups of three-to-four students will be given three terms from the “Topics for Study”
graphic organizer found at the beginning of the unit plan. They will create a Frayer diagram
for each in which they will define the word in their own words; draw a picture of the term;
create a “learning hint” for their peers to help them remember the word, for example, a
nonconformity is when the rocks above and below the unconformity are not the same type of
rock; and will give an example of the term. This will be done on a sheet of large
construction paper divided into four squares with the term in the center.
Summarizing Activities
 Students will present their Frayer diagrams to the class and their work will be passed
around so that their peers can fill in the information on their terms sheet. Work will be
posted on the Word Wall for reference during the unit.
Day Two
Performance Standard(s)

SES4a. Describe and apply principles of relative age (superposition, original horizontality,
cross-cutting relations, and original lateral continuity) and describe how unconformities
form.
Essential Question
How do geologists sequence events found in the rock record?
Activating Strategy
 To review the terms from the previous day, students will play a quick game of BINGO by
creating a card on which they will create a free space in the middle and scatter the twentyfour terms into the remaining twenty-four squares.
Teaching Strategies
 Pancakes and Relative Dating activity
Summarizing Activities
 Discuss answers to the activity’s questions and clean up the enormous mess it makes 
Day Three
Performance Standard(s)
 4a. Describe and apply principles of relative age (superposition, original horizontality,
cross-cutting relations, and original lateral continuity) and describe how unconformities
form.
 4b. Interpret the geologic history of a succession of rocks and unconformities.
Essential Question
How do geologists sequence the order of events found in the rock record?
Activating Strategy
 Work with a partner to preview Relative Dating Exercises worksheet and give tentative
answers for the order of events in each geologic column and discuss difficulties.
Teaching Strategies
 Using the GEODe animation disk, select “Geologic Time” from the main menu and “B.
Relative Dating” from the next menu. Use the animations/lecture as the students use small,
handheld whiteboards to give answers to the questions it poses. Instructor will monitor
their responses closely and guide them as the questions become progressively more
challenging.
Summarizing Activities
 Students will return to Relative Dating Exercises and make any needed corrections. They
will be collected as a ticket-out-the-door.
Day Four
Field Trip to Tellus Museum
Performance Standard(s)

6d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that
is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
As you walk through the fossil gallery (in sections by Precambrian Time, Paleozoic era, Mesozoic
era, and Cenozoic era) what changes in the fossils do you see?
Activating Strategy
 This field trip is an activating strategy as a whole because its purpose is to get students
excited about studying fossils, geologic timescale, and evolution.
Teaching Strategies
 The museum program (page 4 of this link- “The Key to Fossils”) will start with a guide that
will take us through the fossil gallery while giving interesting information and pointing out
the progression of life over time.
 Students will then be broken into smaller groups and will get to examine and classify fossils
more closely and “dig” up their own to take home.
Summarizing Activities
 At the conclusion of the program, students will write a one paragraph answer to the day’s
essential question.
Day Five
Performance Standard(s)
 6d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that
is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
Why has the Earth’s history been divided up into separate eons, eras, periods, and epochs and why
are certain spans of time grouped together?
Activating Strategy
 Each student is assigned an era, period, or epoch. They will write its name, its approximate
beginning and end date and the major changes in life that occurred in the course of its
duration. They will then figure out its distance from the end of the rope (1cm=1million years,
1 meter=100 million years) and then attach their sheet to the rope at the football field and
then walk through Earth’s history.
Teaching Strategies
 Students will research and make a foldable of the geologic time scale (booklet with general
information about the tectonics, life and conditions for the eras, periods, and epochs) in
order to see the progression of life over time and have the information to reference for the
rest of the unit.
Summarizing Activities

3-2-1- Students will list the three eras, in order, of the Phanerozoic eon, give two kinds of
life that were abundant in each, and give one reason why two spans of time are separated on
the geologic timescale.
Day Six
Performance Standard(s)
 SES6 d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction
that is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
How is a fossil alike/different from a living or recently deceased organism and how are they formed?
Activating Strategy
 Fossil chalk talk- the word fossil is written on the board and students silently go to the
board and write ideas that they have or information that they know about the topic.
Teaching Strategies
 Students will complete the geologic time scale foldable from the previous day.
 Students will answer the following questions using the UCMP Berkeley tutorials found
here and here.
Summarizing Activities

Day Seven
Performance Standard(s)
 SES4 c. Apply the principle of uniformitarianism to relate bodies of sedimentary rock and
their fossils to the environments in which the rocks were deposited.
 SES4 e. Use geologic maps and stratigraphic relationships to interpret major events in Earth
history (e.g., mass extinction, major climatic change, tectonic events).
 SES6 d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction
that is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
If you were a paleontologist how would reading a geologic map or column be useful? If you’re not a
paleontologist?
Activating Strategy
 Challenge- each group of four students is provided with a geologic map of Georgia, a fossil
guidebook, and two fossil samples (trilobite and crinoids stem- students not told names).
Give them the following information- Last summer I went on a field trip and dug up these
fossils myself somewhere within the state of Georgia. Pose the following questions: In what
specific areas of Georgia did I/could you find some of these for yourself? These fossils are
found in shallow seas, so how is it that they can now be found in these locations? Discuss.
Teaching Strategies

Students will connect the stratigraphy principles they learned on days two and three with
the occurrence of fossils as described in this article beginning on page 267 at the bottom of
the first column.
Summarizing Activities
 Students share if-then statements with the class and discuss application questions.
Day Eight
Performance Standard(s)
 6 d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that
is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
If you wanted to survive, what color M & M would you be? (this is a trick question and the
students should arrive, by the end of the lesson, that the answer would depend on the
surroundings)
Activating Strategy
 Simple formative quiz over terms/concepts learned so far
 Evolution discussion- students will write down three things that they have heard about
evolution (from any source or perspective) that with which they agree and three things that
have heard about evolution with which they do not agree. Using note cards with student
names written on them, draw cards at random to have students share their thoughts.
Teaching Strategies
 Mini-Lab – Chocolate Candy Survival
 Evolution PowerPoint (thanks again)
Summarizing Activities
 Students will write create a one paragraph response to the essential question.
Day Nine
Performance Standard(s)
 6 d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that
is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
Why are fossils strong pieces of evidence for the theory of evolution?
Activating Strategy
 The following five sets of pictures are cut apart from one another by the instructor before
class and students are asked to put them in order of oldest to youngest. There are then given
the correct order of the pictures (fossils) and asked to record three features from each set of
fossils that change over time and postulate why these modifications might help the
organisms survive better.
Teaching Strategies

Students will answer the following questions while watching Morphed: From Dinosaur to
Turkey.
Summarizing Activities
 Class discussion- what are the strengths/weaknesses of the argument that some theropod
dinosaurs evolved into birds?
Day Ten
Performance Standard(s)
 SES6d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction
that is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
Why are cladograms useful tools for scientists?
Activating Strategy
 Have students observe the following cladogram (taken from NSTA’s Tool Kit for Teaching
Evolution) without the common ancestors and their characteristics labeled. Discuss how the
organisms are alike/different and then placing the boxes in the correct locations. Then the
students will induce what happens as you move up the cladogram and why the organisms
are on separate branches. Other animals suggested by the students will also be added.
Teaching Strategies
 What did T. rex taste like activity/questions from UCMP Berkeley
Summarizing Activities
 Students will create a cladogram from the following forms of communication- talking,
telegraphing, telephoning, cell phoning, text messaging
Day Eleven
Performance Standard(s)
 6 d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that
is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
Why are fossils strong pieces of evidence for the theory of evolution?
Activating Strategy
 The following five sets of pictures are cut apart from one another by the instructor before
class and students are asked to put them in order of oldest to youngest. There are then given
the correct order of the pictures (fossils) and asked to record three features from each set of
fossils that change over time and postulate why these modifications might help the
organisms survive better.
Teaching Strategies
 Students will answer the following questions while watching Morphed: From
Dinosaur to Turkey.
Summarizing Activities
 Class discussion- what are the strengths/weaknesses of the argument that some
therapod dinosaurs evolved into birds?
Days Twelve-Fourteen
Performance Standard(s)
 6 d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction
that is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
Why are fossils strong pieces of evidence for the theory of evolution?
Activating Strategy
 The following five sets of pictures are cut apart from one another by the instructor
before class and students are asked to put them in order of oldest to youngest. There
are then given the correct order of the pictures (fossils) and asked to record three
features from each set of fossils that change over time and postulate why these
modifications might help the organisms survive better.
Teaching Strategies
 Students will answer the following questions while watching Morphed: From
Dinosaur to Turkey.
Summarizing Activities

Class discussion- what are the strengths/weaknesses of the argument that some
therapod dinosaurs evolved into birds?
Day Fifteen
Performance Standard(s)
 6 d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction
that is best explained by the process of natural selection.
Essential Question
Why are fossils strong pieces of evidence for the theory of evolution?
Activating Strategy
 The following five sets of pictures are cut apart from one another by the instructor
before class and students are asked to put them in order of oldest to youngest. There
are then given the correct order of the pictures (fossils) and asked to record three
features from each set of fossils that change over time and postulate why these
modifications might help the organisms survive better.
Teaching Strategies
 Students will answer the following questions while watching Morphed: From
Dinosaur to Turkey.
Summarizing Activities
Day Sixteen and Seventeen
Review and Test
Culminating Product
Students will choose a family of dinosaurs to research. They will create a presentation to share with
their peers that discusses what features the group has that distinguish them from other dinosaurs,
how the features they evolved helped them survive and reproduce in their environment, the time
period and era in which they lived, where and in what type of rock they have been found, and
specific examples of species within their family.
Checklist
CATEGORY
Content
RESPONSIBILITIES
I used an effective and appropriate attention-getting device.
I used vocabulary that the audience could understand or
defined unfamiliar terms.
I specifically described the order (ornithiscians or
saurischians) and suborder/clade (thyrephora, marginocephalia,
theropoda, saurpoda, or orninthopoda) to which my family
belongs and told why they are members of these groups.
I gave a general description of the size, diet, and behavior of
the dinosaurs from my family.
I explicitly described at least three unique features of my
family and how they helped them to survive and reproduce.
I included a labeled geologic timescale with the era(s) and
period(s) during which my family lived.
I described where and in what specific type of rock they have
been found.
I gave at least three specific genera (plural of genus) within my
family (with pictures) and described how they were different from
one another.
I described how my family of dinosaurs went extinct.
I described how my group of dinosaurs evolved as time
progressed.
____/60 pts
Delivery
I maintained eye-contact most of the time.
I spoke to the entire audience, not just one or two people.
I used notes sparingly; I did not read from them or
poster/powerpoint.
I didn't hesitate or lose my place.
I didn't call attention to errors by apologizing.
____/10 pts
Organization
I organized ideas in a meaningful way.
I stayed focused and did not stray off topic.
I included necessary background information about the topic.
The body of the presentation contained support for, or details
about, the main point(s).
A strong conclusion was present.
____/10 pts
Presentation Aids
Presentation aids improved the presentation or reinforced
main points.
Presentation aids were creative.
Visual aids were attractive.
Visual aids were easily viewed or read by the entire audience.
Visual aids contained no spelling or grammatical errors.
____/15 pts
Resources
I used my own words in the presentation.
I cited my sources using the required format.
____/5 pts
____/100 points total
Suggested families for research:
Compsognathids (pretty jaw)
Ornithomimids (bird mimics)
Herrerasaurids (Herrera lizards)
Tyrannosaurids (tyrant lizards)
Spinosaurids (thorn lizards)
Plateosaurids (flat lizards)
Titanosaurids (titanic lizards)
Brachiosaurids (arm lizards)
Hypsilophodontids (high-ridged teeth)
Pachycephalosaurids (thick-headed lizards)
Ceratopsidae (horned faces)
Stegosaurinae (roof lizards)
Oviraptors (egg thieves)
Coelophysids (hollow form)
Dromaeosaurids (running lizards)
Allosaurids (different lizards)
Baryonychids (heavy claws)
Camarasaurids (chambered lizards)
Diplodocids (double-beamed form)
Iguanodontids (iguana teeth)
Lambeosaurids (Lambe's lizard)
Protoceratopsids (first horned faces)
Psittacosaurids (parrot lizards)
Ankylosaurids (fused lizards)