Students will be able to construct explanations for why most individual organisms, as well as some entire taxonomic groups of organisms, that lived in the past were never fossilized. 8.E.6A.5
Content Knowledge Support
- Read and compete interactive science workbook pages 484 – 489.
Discussion Topics
- The year is 10,000 years after today. What kinds of fossils do you think will be found? What kind of organisms that exist today do you think may never be found? If you were to become a fossil in a futuristic museum what kind of fossil would you want to be? Explain why using specific details from the content knowledge resource(s).
Recommended Exercises
(Level 1) Comprehension
(Level 1) Comprehension
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(Level 4) Evaluation
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Additional Exercises & Extensions
(Level 1) Comprehension
- Watch the dinosaur bone fossilization EDPuzzle and carefully answer the embedded questions:
(Level 2) Application
- Choose one way an organism could become a fossil and then draw and explain how this entire process would have to occur in order for you to become a fossil using 25 words or more as well as 2 or more drawings.
- Learn and identify various types of fossils according to scenarios with this assignment TEMPLATE.
(Level 3) Analysis
- Complete Figuring Out Fossils SEPUP laboratory and analysis using this lab TEMPLATE.
- Complete Fossilized Footprints SEPUP investigation and analysis using this lab TEMPLATE.
- Carefully follow the steps to create a free account and use the fossil fabricator interactive to attempt to create 10 fossils. Analyze your results by making a fraction for the number of successful attempts over 10 (example 2/10) and answer the following questions:
- Was it easy or difficult to create a fossil using the simulation? Explain why using the fraction you created for your analysis.
- What specific factors in the simulation seemed to limit the success of a fossil being formed the most (i.e. geographic location)
- What are 3 or more factors that did not lead to the success of making a fossil?
- What factors did lead to the success of a fossil being formed more?
(Level 4) Evaluation
- Rank each of the 6 types of fossil in order from most to least difficult in terms of how likely this process would occur in nature to form a fossil. During your ranking explain how each fossil is made and justify your ranking system using 2 or more specific details in how that particular fossil is made in justifying why it is more or less likely to form a fossil in nature using this Google Slide TEMPLATE.
(Level 5) Creation
- Generally, when we think of fossils we think of massive dinosaur bones however, none of those fossils are actually the bones of dinosaurs at all. "They are stones in the shape of bones." This process of turning bone into stone is called permineralization. Research the process needed to create a permineralized fossil and create a storyboard accurately describing how dinosaur bones could become a fossil.
- Storyboard creator (optional resource)
Additional Explorations
- What is taphonomy?
- With moldes, sometimes the rock as the appearance of the organism. Sometimes, all traces of the organism are lost but an external mold is formed around the body and is preserved. Sometimes internal mold forms when material is precipitated inside an organism (ex: a marine shell or the hollow stem of a plant). What are some real-world examples of this. What did scientists conclude or learn from these fossils?
Future Learning Connections (9-12)
- Obtain and evaluate evidence from rock and fossil records and ice core samples to support claims that Earth's environmental conditions have changed over time.
English Language Learners
Module Review Resources
Vocabulary Practice
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