Bring Science Alive! Adaptations Interactive Student Notebook Sample

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH

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Earth’s History OBSERVING PHENOMENA

Phenomenon: In the Sonoran Desert, fossils near the bottom of cliffs are different than fossils found at the top of the cliffs.

1. What questions do you have about this phenomenon?

I N V E S T I G AT I O N 1

1. What clues in these mountainsides help to explain how the rock was formed?

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2. Use this space to take notes from your research on the data from the Sonoran Desert site.

3. Draw a model of your site. Include labels for the different rock strata and the fossils found there. Make note of what color or texture of sand/soil might best represent each strata for your 3D model.

4. Write a storyline for what happened in this environment over time based on the fossil record.

5. How similar was your storyline to the other pair’s storyline? Why was it similar or not similar?

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N O T E B O O K 1 - The Formation of Earth and the Origin of Life

1. Number the images below according to the sequence that the solar system formed. The last one is done for you.

2. The word “theory” is often used to describe an idea that someone has. How is that usage of the word theory different than the definition of a scientific theory?

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3. You believe that water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). Write the number on the scale from best to worst.

1. Your cousin said that he tested the temperature of water boiling and found that it was 100°C. 2. Most people you know believe that water boils at 100°C. 3. You used a thermometer to measure the temperature at which water boiled. You repeated the experiment 3 times. Each time the thermometer read 100°C. 4. You read an article in a science journal from 50 different labs around the world that have tested the temperature of water and found that it boils at 100°C in every location.

Best evidence

Worst evidence

4. What was found that madeMost scientists believe that life on earth is 3.5 billionYou years old?

Your cousin said that he people you know You used a thermometer read an article in a tested the temperature of water boiling and found that it was 100°C.

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believe that water boils at 100°C.

to measure the temperature at which water boiled. You repeated the experiment 3 times.

Each time the thermometer read 100°C.

science journal from 50 different labs around the world that have tested the temperature of water and found that it boils at 100°C in every location.

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N O T E B O O K I N V E S T I G AT I O N 2

1. Create a system for recording where you found each fossil. One idea is to draw a grid. For each fossil, write down where you found it and what it was.

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2. When you have looked through the whole site, can you tell anything about when these organisms lived or the environment in which they lived? Choose 15 of the fossilized organisms from your site. Record your results in the chart.

Organism:

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Layer:

Environment in Which It Lived:

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3. Make a guess about which is older: the white bones or the blue trilobites.

4. Explain which fossils are the oldest and which are the youngest. How do you know? Use the data to argue your answer.

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5. What patterns do you see in the geological timeline of life on Earth?

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6. Combine the data you found with the data found by the other group to create a chart of the relative ages of each fossil found in your fossil sites.

7. What do you know about rock strata and fossils that helps support your model of the relative ages of the fossils at the two sites? Use this to support your argument on Handout F.

8. What is the relative age of the new purple heart fossil?

9. Explain why Horn Corals are often found in the same layer as trilobites but never the same layer as dinosaur fossils.

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N O T E B O O K 2 - Relative Dating and Earth’s History

1. How do the rock layers in this mountainside form?

2. Which layer of rock is the oldest, which is the youngest?

3. Why are most of the fossils found that of organisms that lived in or around water?

4. What is the difference between a scientific law and a scientific theory?

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5. Draw a line to where you would find these fossils relative to each other on this hill.

3 - Using Fossils to Reconstruct Earth’s History

1. Which layers from North America are the same age as layers from Europe? Use the number or letter of the layer to identify it.

2. How is the layer of iridium used to tell the relative age of different rock strata and fossils?

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N O T E B O O K I N V E S T I G AT I O N 3

Use the Potassium to Argon Decay Chart to determine how old the sample at each station would be.

Remember that the green beads represent Potassium and the blue beads represent Argon.

Potassium to Argon Decay

Percent of Potassium and Argon in Sample

Potassium

Argon

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Billions of Years of Decay

1. Fill out the table for each station: Station

# of green beads (Potassium)

# of blue beads (Argon)

Percent of Potassium in sample

Percent of Argon in sample

Age of Sample

1 2 3 4 5 6

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N O T E B O O K 4 - Absolute Dating of Rocks and Fossils

1. How is absolute dating different from relative dating? Fill in the chart below with either absolute dating, relative dating, or both.

Feature

Absolute Dating, Relative Dating, or Both?

Can tell you the exact age of a fossil or rock Need to compare the location of the rock or fossil to another location to determine age Based on a set pattern of radioactive decay Reliable method for dating fossils or rocks Can be used to compare the age of two different fossils or rocks found in different places around the world 2. If it takes 700 million years for half of the uranium in a rock to decay into lead, how old is a fossil that is:

a) 50% uranium and 50% lead

b) 25% uranium and 75% lead 5 - Building the Geologic Time Scale

1. What is the geologic time scale? Explain how the geologic time scale is a model.

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Use the geological time scale to answer the following questions.

2. During what era did the dinosaurs live?

3. How many millions of years was the Paleozoic?

4. During what period where the first early human relatives found?

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N O T E B O O K 6 - A Model of Earth and Human History

1. The oldest fossils and evidence of modern humans on earth are around 200,000 years old.

Before that time lived the ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals. If all of earth’s history was compressed into 12 hours, what time would you first see modern humans?

MAKING SENSE OF PHENOMENA

Phenomenon: In the Sonoran Desert, fossils near the bottom of cliffs are different than fossils found at the top of the cliffs.

1. Use what you have learned to explain this phenomenon.

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