Rating: Example of High Quality NGSS Design

Awarded the NGSS Design Badge

Science Discipline: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science

Length: Unit

Numerous reports suggest an increase in white shark encounters in the United States in recent years and the public is worried. In this integrated middle school unit, students engage in three-dimensional learning that enables them to explain the phenomenon. White sharks in the coastal waters of Southern California serve as a case study for students to ask questions and build understanding. Students initially question if white shark encounters are in fact increasing and investigate reports of sightings. They wonder if we know whether or not the population is on the rise, leading students to next explore past evidence from fossils and data from historic fishers logs. Students then question how scientists today are monitoring white sharks, setting the stage to explore the use of modern tracking devices (digging deep into waves and signals) and what researchers know about white sharks because of the application of this technology. This opens up the opportunity for students to question and consider what the science community has learned about white shark life history, how humans have impacted the white shark population off Southern California, and to devise a way to address public concerns.

This is a series of lessons about Plate Tectonics contains a science lab and follow-up multimedia research project for both upper elementary and middle school age students. It can be adapted to be completely project based and integrate with other subjects beyond language arts and science.

This is a series of lessons about Plate Tectonics contains a science lab and follow-up multimedia research project for both upper elementary and middle school age students. It can be adapted to be completely project based and integrate with other subjects beyond language arts and science.

This Ology website for kids focuses on Paleontology. It includes activities, things to make, quizzes, interviews with working scientists, and more to help kids learn about Paleontology.

Students will learn about land formation, fossils, and erosion from the WyomingPBS documentary "Over Wyoming"

Teaching the students how to picture match fossils and to use the Treatise to find more information. Students are given a wide range of fossils to look at and appropriate material to match their fossil to an image which gives the genus and species name. With that information, the students turn to the Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology to find upper level taxonomic names.

This is a lab exercise where students make synthetic trace fossils (using fishing lures) that was presented as a scientific study: BIOGENIC SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES PRODUCED BY WORMS IN SOUPY, SOFT MUDS: OBSERVATIONS FROM THE CHATTANOOGA SHALE (UPPER DEVONIAN) AND EXPERIMENTS, by VADEC LOBZA AND JURGEN SCHIEBER, JOURNAL OF SEDIMENTARY RESEARCH, VOL. 69, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER, 1999, P. 1041â1049

The lesson will begin by students accessing their prior knowledge of the anatomical similarities and differences among modern and fossil organisms by creating a Venn diagram with a partner, which will compare and contrast two organisms. Next, students will complete the online modules found at "What did T. rex Taste Like?" from the University of California Museum of Paleontology, which will explain how a cladogram diagram can be used to show lines of lineage and evolutionary relationships. Students will use a cladogram to infer how a T. rex is related to modern organisms. Lastly, students will construct a written explanation to describe the anatomical similarities and differences between the T. rex and modern organisms based on evidence from the cladograms in a claim-evidence-reasoning format. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

In this transcript of an interview filmed for Evolution: "Great Transformations," Ted Daeschler and Neil Shubin describe the discovery and significance of some of their key fossil finds.

This graphic from Biology by Kenneth R. Miller and Joseph Levine suggests how some recent hominid fossil finds might fit into the overall picture of hominid evolution. As more fossils are found and further analysis advances our understanding of human evolution, this picture will almost certainly be revised.

In this video segment from NOVA: Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, learn about the discovery of a well-preserved transitional fossil and how such transitional fossils support the theory of evolution.

This lab explores ontogenetic differences in trilobites, requiring students to measure and describe differences in the sizes of different morphological features as trilobites age. Students will also reinforce concepts of allometry, isometry, and morphology of trilobites.

This leson in intended as an inroduction to the following standard:MS–LS4–1Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

This gallery of online resources is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Video Gallery: Mark Norell's Research, part of the Dinosaurs Among Us: The Link to Birds seminar, features two videos: Dr. Norell's Current Research, a video overview (with a printable PDF transcript) of his work, which seeks to fill in some of the gaps between "the traditional dinosaurs" and primitive birds. Research on the Origin of Feathers, a video (with a printable PDF transcript) that looks at a dinosaur that was covered with feathers and how feathers pre-date the origin of birds.

In this classroom activity, young students explore the differences between bone and trace fossils. The activity opens with background information for teachers about fossils. After describing what a fossil is in their own words, students learn that a fossil is "any evidence of life that is at least 10,000 years old." They then explore the differences between trace and bone fossils by examining pictures. The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify trace and bone fossils.

This article describes research conducted by Dr. Ross MacPhee of the American Museum of Natural History. MacPhee is studying the possible causes behind the extinction of the woolly mammoth.

In this classroom activity, young students investigate what paleontologists can tell from a dinosaur's teeth. The activity opens with background information for teachers about dinosaur teeth. Students begin by looking at animal photos and describing each creature's teeth. They then conduct an experiment that helps them differentiate between the teeth of meat-eaters and plant-eaters .The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs.

This article provides links to interactive web sites and lesson plans for teaching about paleontology, dinosaurs, and archaeology in the elementary classroom.