AGENDAS FOR THE WEEK:

MONDAY

February 1 February 5

TUESDAY

Mass Extinction Events

Objective(s): SWBAT
*Identify different causes of
extinction
*Describe briefly the timeline
of organisms
*Differentiate between sudden
and gradual changes that lead
to extinction

Fossils as Evidence
Objective(s): SWBAT
*Determine the progression of
Species through anatomical
comparison
*Identify fossils in relation to
modern species
*Conclude the benefits of fossil
evidence to evolution

CCSS/NGSSS:
-SC.7.L.15.1 Recognize that
fossil evidence is consistent
with the scientific theory of
evolution that living things
evolved from earlier species.

CCSS/NGSSS:

Engage (5 Minutes)
BR #4: What causes a mass
extinction?
-Discuss as a class. Have the
students validate their answers.

Engage: (10 Minutes)

BR #5: How do we use Fossils
as evidence for Evolution?
-Allow students to talk with their
shoulder partners and face
partners (1 minute each, 30
seconds per student response)
-Discuss as a class, take
individual student answers. Ask
students if they agree/ disagree
and why.

-SC. 7.L.15.1: Recognize that

fossil evidence is consistent with
the scientific theory of evolution
that living things evolved from
earlier species.

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Quiz Day
Objective(s): SWBAT
*Demonstrate a mastery of the
five types of fossils, the
difference between absolute
and relative age dating, and
what would cause a mass
extinction.

Darwin and Co.

Objective(s): SWBAT
*Summarize a scientific
article
*Compare evidence and
theories
*Write an educated statement
based off of evidence

Mechanisms of Change
Objective(s): SWBAT
*Enact the mechanisms of
change (Mutation, Migration,
Genetic Drift, and Natural
Selection)
*Describe the impact
environment has on evolution

CCSS/NGSSS:
-SC. 7.L.15.1: Recognize that
fossil evidence is consistent
with the scientific theory of
evolution that living things
evolved from earlier species.

Engage: (5 Minutes)
BR #7: Write down any
concepts you are still having
trouble with. We will discuss
them as a class before the quiz.
-Discuss as a class, take
individual student answers.
Ask students who know the
concepts to describe them to
their peers.

CCSS/NGSSS:
-SC.7.L.15.2: Explore the
scientific theory of evolution
by recognizing and explaining
ways in which genetic
variation and environmental
factors contribute to evolution
by natural selection and
diversity of organisms.
-SC.7.L.15.3: Explore the
scientific theory of evolution
by relating how the inability
of a species to adapt within a
changing environment may
contribute to the extinction of
that species.
Engage: (5 Minutes)
BR #8: How many scientists
does it take to form a
scientific theory?
-Allow students to talk with
their shoulder partners and
face partners (1 minute each,
30 seconds per student
response)
-Discuss as a class, take
individual student answers.
Ask students if they agree/
disagree and why.

CCSS/NGSSS:
-SC.7.L.15.2: Explore the
scientific theory of evolution
by recognizing and explaining
ways in which genetic
variation and environmental
factors contribute to evolution
by natural selection and
diversity of organisms.
-SC.7.L.15.3: Explore the
scientific theory of evolution
by relating how the inability
of a species to adapt within a
changing environment may
contribute to the extinction of
that species.
Engage: (5 Minutes)
BR #9: Besides Natural
Selection, what are other
Mechanisms of Change?
-Allow students to work with
their groups to come up with
three conditions that need to
be met for natural selection
-Discuss as a class, take
individual student answers.
Ask students if they
agree/disagree and why

L
A

Explore (15 Minutes)

-Students will form a line.
Inform the students that they
each represent a plant or
animal species.
-Shuffle a deck of cards with 1
Joker included. Students pull
three at random. Suits
symbolize food, water, and
shelter. If a student pulls three
different suits, the species lives
on. If not, the species dies off.
(face cards are wild)
-When an Ace or the Joker is
pulled, that dictates an
extinction event. Depict the
earth chronologically through
time, setting up each round
before the extinction event
occurs, dictating the types of
species living at the time.
Explain (20 Minutes)
-(This explanation will take
place through each stage of the
card game. I will set up the
scenario of life at the time, and
explain the extinction events
when a student chooses an Ace
or Joker)
-542 mya, the Cambrian
Explosion occurred. Found in
fossil evidence, this is where
most animals appeared.
-Life was found almost
exclusively in the ocean.
-Late Ordovician-Silurian
extinction event occurred (438
mya) when CO2 was eaten up
by eroded volcanic rock.
-What causes greenhouse
gasses? CO2 trapped in the
atmosphere. What would
happen if there was less CO2
in the atmosphere? Planet
would cool.
-The planet cooled and glaciers

Explore: (15 minutes)

-Different pictures of dinosaurs
and modern animals will be
positioned around the room.
-Students will be given a
phylogenetic tree worksheet.
-Students will attempt to put the
organisms on the tree based off
of various bits of evidence that
they are given (specific
anatomical features, dates of
fossils, x-rays, etc.)
-Each group will discuss their
findings and share their
conclusions with each other.
Explain: (10 minutes)
-Students will be randomly
called to give their ideas of what
came first on the phylogenetic
tree.
-Students will back up their
conclusions with the data they
found.
-After the tree is completed, a
few pictures will be shown to
illustrate the concept (side by
side bone comparisons,
evolution of anatomy, etc.)
Elaborate: (15 minutes)
-The Great Fossil Find!!
(This is an activity that the 7th
grade science department
wanted to do as a whole)
-Students will be given a few
bones each day and will slowly
construct a prehistoric organism
over the week.

Explore: (30 Minutes)

Quiz

Explain: (? Minutes)
Quiz
Elaborate: (? Minutes)
-Take whatever time there is at
the end of the class to go over
the quiz. Hopefully this can
clarify things that students may
have been confused on

Explore: (20 Minutes)

Jigsaw Activity:
-Students (by seat color) will
be sent to different areas of
the room to study one of 4
possible contributing
scientists on evolution.
(Alfred Wallace, Jean-Baptiste
Lamarck, Charles Darwin,
Henry Walter Bates)
-Students will take 10 minutes
to read through the article
-Students will then discuss the
important points that are
contributing factors to the
theory for 5 minutes
-Students then will return to
their original groups and take
turns sharing the information
theyve gained (for the
remaining 5 minutes).
-Articles:
http://www.britannica.com/bio
graphy/Alfred-Russel-Wallace
http://www.britannica.com/bio
graphy/Jean-BaptisteLamarck
http://www.encyclopedia.com/
topic/Henry_Walter_Bates.asp
x
http://www.britannica.com/bio
graphy/Charles-Darwin
**See Attached
Explain: (15 Minutes)
-Through random student
generator, students will share
either one thing they learned
about their scientist or another
group members scientist
- watch
https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=H8q3my7ujws
Elaborate: (10 Minutes)
-Finish the class by giving the

Explore: (20 Minutes)

-Each student will take a
sheet of paper and fold it into
6 parts
-Students will write food in
two boxes, water in two
boxes, and shelter in two
boxes.
-These requirements of living
things will be scattered about
the room. Some in high
places, some in low places.
-To start, all students will
have to crawl on their hands
and knees to get one of each
resource. They will have 1
minute to grab at least one of
each resource without using
their thumbs.
-After round one, some
students will have offspring
with mutations (chosen by
desk color). Those students
will be allowed to use their
thumbs and collect as many
sets of resources as they want.
-Students then will place their
food back in the environment.
-For round 2, students will
only have 30 seconds to get
their resources
-Those students who die out
will have the opportunity to
come back as offspring of
whoever they choose
(Standup-Handup-Pairup).
-The next round will run the
same, but require all thumbs
to end at the right wall and all
non-thumbs to end on the left
wall.
-After the round, take some
food away from the thumb
side and move it onto the nonthumb side.
-The next round will run the
same, except each species

started to form at the poles.

They melted and formed a
number of times killing off
most aquatic life.
-After that, fish evolved and
plant life started to move on
land.
-The plants changed the
landscape of the earth which
caused bio matter to wash into
the ocean, creating a lot of
algae. This algae actually took
oxygen out of the water and
caused the fish to choke to
death. (374 mya, Late
Devonian Extinction)
-There is another possible
explanation that is debated. It
involves the massive amount of
plant life. What do you think
could have happened? CO2
was sucked up by plants and
another glacial event happened.
-An organism that developed
lungs and legs lived to evolve
into the first amphibians and
reptiles.
-They lived for around 100
million years until volcanic
gasses were released into the
atmosphere from Siberia,
Russia. Many scientists believe
this was due to an asteroid
hitting the earth, though no
crater is found. (250 mya,
Permian Extinction)
-What impact would this have
on the earth? Burned up the
ozone, water became too hot,
acid rain. This was the most
devastating extinction event.
-Around 5% of species were
left. They evolved into the
early small dinosaurs.
-200 mya (Triassic Extinction)
a volcanic rift split what is now
the Americas and
Europe/Africa, making the

students time to fill the L

column in their KWL chart.

will have to stay on their

respective sides. Those that
die will now be forced to be
born again on the non-thumbs
side.
-A few students will now
switch sides maintaining the
same traits to demonstrate
migration, and the game will
continue in the same manner.
-After the next round, Genetic
drift will occur, taking a large
portion of the population (all
students wearing jeans, all
students with hanging
earlobes)
-Finally, one last round will
be played by the remaining
students. And one last
offspring pair will occur.
Explain: (10 Minutes)
-Use a Slide set to illustrate
the 4 main mechanisms of
change
-Ask students to compare the
mechanisms to something that
occurred to them within the
game
Elaborate: (15 Minutes)
-Take some time to write
down what you remember
from to mechanisms of
change game
-compare the mechanisms to
different parts of the game
-Each member of the group
will have 1 uninterrupted
minute to discuss what they
remember from the game and
how it compares to the
mechanisms
-afterwards we will share
them with the class

Atlantic ocean, and spewing

CO2 back into the atmosphere.
-Dinosaurs did extremely well
after the last extinction event.
They became huge, dominating
all land life.
-Dinosaurs lived for 150
million years until what
happened? Meteor hit the
earth.
-Around 65 mya, A meteor hit
the Yucatan Peninsula in
Mexico, killing off all large
dinosaurs (Cretaceous
Extinction). Any small
dinosaurs evolved into birds
and the world soon became
dominated by mammals.
-Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=wissIOikrqc
-So after watching that history
of the earth and playing our
little card game, what causes
extinctions? Geological factors
like volcanoes, temperature of
the earth, lack of resources,
meteors.
-Which of these causes were
sudden/gradual?
Elaborate (10 Minutes)
-I want us to make a timeline
to get an idea as to when all of
this happened
-We are going to pretend that
the history of life happened all
in one day. The most primitive
single celled organisms came
into being at 12 am and current
day is 24 hours later at 12 am
-In your table groups, write
down the times that you think
represent when
seaweed/inverts, land plants,
amphibians/insects, reptiles,
dinosaurs, birds/mammals, and
the first humans first existed.

-Groups will work

collaboratively for 5-7 minutes.
Ask for student predictions
before revealing answers.

N
Resources:

Evaluate and Summary

Sign off:
-There were five major
extinction events that forced
organisms to evolve.

Evaluate and Summary: (1

Minute)
Evidence SheetStudents will write down
whatever evidence they took
from todays lesson in their
science notebooks. This
evidence will be used on their
Unit Test.

Evaluate and Summary

Create a KWL chart, asking
the students to write what they
know and what they want to
learn about the naturalist
scientists behind evolution.

-Deck of playing cards

-Pictures of Ancestor Animals

-Phylogenetic Tree Worksheet

-quiz
-bell ringer assessment

Evaluate and Summary: (5

Minutes)
Sign Off:
Even though Darwin is the
only scientist who receives
credit for the theory of
evolution, many other
scientists played a part in its
discovery as well as the
evidence to support it.
-Naturalist Articles

Evaluate and Summary

Sign Off:
What are the mechanisms of
change?
-mutation
-migration
-genetic drift
-natural selection