HS-LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity Lesson Plans

  • Worksheet
    Deep Time: Finding the Ages of Rocks & Fossils
    Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students are taken through a combination of some background information and interactive experiences using a narrative that includes concepts of isotopes, radioactive decay, half-life, mineral formation, age analysis, Fair Test questions, and isochrons.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
    		  
    Published by Larry Flammer High School
  • Project
    Dinosaur Evolution Project
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) with Membership
     
    Project
    Students pretend to evolve a dinosaur using Darwin's principles of evolution and watch how the dinosaur adapts to an environmental change. This is a very comprehensive project including natural selection, adaptations, chromosome and point mutations, gene pools, isolation, Mendel genetics, protein synthesis, fossils, ecology, competition,and speciation.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
    HS-LS4.B: Natural Selection
    HS-LS4.C: Adaptation
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science High School
  • Class Activity
    Experience Deep Time & Earliest Fossils
    Lesson Plan
     
    Activity
    Students gradually build a realistic sense of deep, geological time from familiar linear analogs, e.g. calendars and football fields. Students also learn to associate the earliest fossils of specific groups of vertebrates with the geologic time of their emergence, on the now-familiar scale of relative distances from their school. From this, students discover the pattern of gradual vertebrate emergence and how well it consistently fits vertebrate phylogeny.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
    		  
    Published by Larry Flammer High School
  • Class Activity
    The Great Fossil Find
    Lesson Plan
     
    Activity
    Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt. Following a script read by the teacher, students "find" (remove from envelope) paper "fossils" of some unknown creature, only a few at a time. Each time, they attempt to reconstruct the creature, and each time their interpretation tends to change as new pieces are "found". This lesson is great for students to understand that science is tentative and as new evidence is revealed, ideas may change.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
    		  
    Published by Steve Randak and Michael Kimmel High School
  • Worksheet
    Examining the Fossil Record
    Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students analyze the characteristics of fossils, organize paper "fossils" to show change over time by developing an evolutionary tree based on the morphology and age of fossils.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf High School

More HS-LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity lesson plans are in the works.
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