Lesson 4: Fossils, Evolution, and Environmental Change
Duration of Days: 5
Lesson Objective
Students will be able to analyze fossil sequences, evolutionary data, and environmental evidence to construct explanations of how species change over time and how ecosystems respond to long-term environmental shifts on Earth.
-How does fossil evidence support the theory of biological evolution over geologic time?
-What patterns in fossil sequences indicate evolutionary relationships between species?
-How do environmental changes drive natural selection and speciation?
-How can fossil assemblages be used to reconstruct ancient ecosystems?
-What evidence shows that biodiversity has changed through mass extinctions and recoveries?
-How do scientists use multiple fossil datasets to build evolutionary timelines?
-Evolution
-Adaptation
-Natural selection
-Extinction
-Speciation
-Transitional fossil
-Fossil record
-Biodiversity
-Paleoenvironment
-Phylogenetic relationship
-Fossil succession
HS-LS4-1 – Construct explanations based on fossil evidence that species evolve over time through genetic variation and environmental pressure.
HS-LS4-5 – Analyze fossil and biological data to identify patterns in the history of life on Earth.
HS-ESS1-4 – Use fossil evidence to explain changes in Earth’s environments and life forms over geologic time.
NGSS Crosscutting Concepts
-Patterns (fossil succession, evolutionary relationships, biodiversity changes)
-Cause and Effect (environmental change driving evolutionary change)
-Stability and Change (ecosystem shifts over deep time)
-Scale, Proportion, and Quantity (evolutionary processes over millions of years)
-Students will analyze fossil sequence datasets to identify patterns of evolutionary change.
-Students will interpret biodiversity graphs to explain increases and decreases in species over time.
-Students will construct CER responses linking fossil evidence to environmental and evolutionary change.
-Students will evaluate claims about evolution using multi-source scientific evidence.
Students will investigate how fossil records provide evidence of evolutionary change and environmental transformation across geologic time. Students will analyze fossil sequences, biodiversity trends, and environmental reconstructions to identify patterns of change and continuity.
Students will synthesize multiple datasets to understand how species adapt, evolve, or go extinct in response to environmental pressures.
Activities may include:
-Analyzing fossil sequences to identify evolutionary transitions
-Constructing evolutionary timelines using fossil evidence
-Comparing fossil assemblages from different geologic periods
-Interpreting biodiversity graphs showing extinction and recovery patterns
-Constructing CER explanations linking fossils to evolutionary change
Purpose
Develop students’ ability to integrate fossil, environmental, and biodiversity data to explain evolution as a long-term, evidence-driven process shaped by environmental change and natural selection.
DOK Level
DOK 3–4 – Strategic Thinking to Extended Reasoning
(synthesizing multiple data sources, identifying patterns across time, and constructing evidence-based explanations)
-Paleontology research and evolutionary biology careers
-Understanding biodiversity loss and conservation science today
-Connections between past mass extinctions and current environmental changes
-Evolution occurs within a single generation or lifetime
-All organisms evolve at the same rate
-Extinction means failure rather than adaptation or environmental shift
-The fossil record is complete and fully continuous
-Evolution is linear rather than branching and complex
-Chunked fossil and biodiversity datasets for analysis
-Visual evolutionary trees and timelines
-Scaffolded CER writing with structured evidence banks
-Group-based fossil interpretation tasks
-Graphic organizers connecting environment ? selection ? evolution
-Extension tasks analyzing multiple extinction events
-CER writing: “How does fossil evidence demonstrate evolution over time?”
-Fossil sequence and evolutionary timeline analysis
-Biodiversity graph interpretation tasks
-Exit tickets on environmental change and evolutionary response
-Comparative analysis of fossil assemblages across time periods
-Fossil sequence and stratigraphic datasets
-Evolutionary tree diagrams
-Biodiversity trend graphs
-Environmental reconstruction visuals
-Case study readings on extinction and evolution events