In the first part of this lab, students will learn about land ice and the processes and timescales involved in glaciation. In Part B, they will learn about how scientists use ice cores to study climate history. In Part C, students will use an online interactive to explore how Earth's temperature, glacial ice, coastlines, and sea level have changed over the last 450,000 years.

In this lesson, students will identify patterns in fossils and explain their understanding of how rock layers are deposited. They will use the evidence from the activity to make inferences about what the Earth was like during the time the fossils existed.

Students watch the Cambrian Explosion video (https://www.shapeoflife.org/video/cambrian-explosion), construct personal and Earth timelines, and begin to explore the scale of time embodied in Earth's history.

Students explore the Cambrian Explosion and other major Earth events, construct a scale for Earth's history and sequence some of Earht's major events along a timeline. Students consider what evidence exists for these events and then compare Earth's history to schoolyard and personal history.

Students will investigate the possible connection between the Cambrian explosion, methane hydrates and global warming. Students will work in collaborative groups to research a organism whose fossil can be found in the Burgess Shale. They will then share information in a large-group session and discuss how methane hydrates might be involved with global warming. In an optional extension activity, students create a model of the specimen they researched.

This tutorial describes how the composition of the atmosphere of Earth has changed over time.

In this earth science field investigation, students will make detailed observations of a local outcrop and record them in their science journals. Students will discover basic geologic principles and apply them to their observations to hypothesize what our environment would be like in the past. Students will be asked to justify their hypotheses with observational evidence and describe how they might be tested.

In this activity, students will learn how evidence from fossils can be used in paleogeogrpahic interpretation.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Science.

In this lesson, students use a computer interactive to explore what clues scientists have used to determine changes in the Arctic's climate and cultures since the end of the last Ice Age.

This activity is designed to help students see ways that Earth's changes can alter the order that rocks are found in.

Students access their prior knowledge of fossils and the fossil record by creating a "chain letter" with their classmates. Next, students will participate in an introductory WebQuest which will explain how the anatomical structure of the whale has changed over time. With a collaborative group, students will create a timeline of the Eocene epoch that will depict the chronological order of whale fossil appearance in rock layers. Using the jigsaw strategy, students will read an informational text pertaining to the change in the anatomical structures of the whale over time and complete a data table. Lastly, students will complete an exit slip, which will serve as the summative assessment for the lesson's objectives.

In this lesson, students will measure the mass of several objects which will represent "fossils." Each object's mass will represent a specific age of the object. Students will gain an understanding of how scientists use absolute dating to accurately determine the age of objects and how relative dating is used to generally determine the age of objects.

Students practice scientific thinking to understand evidence and inference, within the context of fossils' use as a record of the past.

This interactive resource presents how paleoanthropology provides an excellent example of the scientific process at work.

Students will make observations and measurements on photomicrographs of research samples of fossilized protists called foraminifera (or forams). Their observations mirror those made by researchers documenting a mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period about 66 million years ago. This activity complements the hands-on activity Weighing the Evidence for a Mass Extinction - On Land, in which students analyze graphs and examine data on pollen gains and fern spores to form a picture of the living landscape before and sfter the K-t mass extinction. This hands-on activity supports the HHMI short film The Day the Mesozoic Died, and in particular Act 1: An Earth-Shattering Hypothesis.

Students will analyze graphs and data on pollen grains and fern spores to form a picture of the living landscape before and after the K-T event. This activity complements the hands-on activity Weighing the Evidence for a Mass Extinction, Part 1: In the Ocean, in which students examine data on fossils of foraminifera, microorganisms that are abundant in the ocean. This lesson supports the HHMI short film The Day the Mesozoic Died.

This video explains what happened when North and South America collided as a result of plate tectonics.