Chapter 14 Introduction "Evolution"

Materials:

• 1 or two sheets of scratch paper for each student.
• Worksheet. "Adaptation of an Organism in Your Community"

Objective:

• Students will be introduced to Evolution.
• Students will list three social problems surrounding the idea of Evolution.
• Students will develop a time-line of their life history.

Anticipatory Set:* Show the students a timeline of the teachers life history then have the students quickly draw their own on a piece of scratch paper. Now have the students compare their life history with that of the Geologic Time Scale on Page 360. Many scientists have spent their entire careers figuring out the life history of the earth. Scientists use many different tools to study the past. The best though is written history. Have the students look at the picture on Page 350 and ask the question, "What would a scientist learn about the history of people based on this cave painting.?" Have them compare what scientists may learn by looking at these pictures. Cave Painting 2, Cave Painting 3, fossil1, fossil 2, Trex Cartoon. One of the things that scientists have notice is that they can take things that are happening now and link them to the past. Earthquakes and markers now tell us that the continents and land beneath our feet are moving. If scientists take that idea and then compare different fossils found around the world they can tell where the continents once were. Pangea.

Teacher Input:* There is big conflict in a lot of areas because of the topic of this chapter, "Evolution" it is not this- "Darwin as an Ape." You need to think of evolution more like a road map. We know where we are now. If we want to find where we came from we can turn around on the road and go backwards. You probably know the story of hansel and gretel. They found their way back out of a dark fo rest by following bread crumbs. Fossils are like the bread crumbs we use to figure out where organisms on earth have come from. (Just like Hansel and Gretel though a lot of those bread crumbs have been eaten by birds and they are hard to find) Here is how it works, horse evolution.

Why the conflict? Bible. How it is interpreted by many people very differently. Lets look at a simple phrase, "That speech is going to kill me?" this can be interpreted in many ways. The Bible too can be interpreted in may ways and the idea of evolution and God can co-exist. "Does seven days really mean seven days" That question is up to you to figure out. What I want to do is show you the evidence of evolution and let you decide what it means. You will be tested on the theory and vocabulary though no matter what your beliefs. Why?

Tell a story of a debate between a creationist and an evolutionist. A University Professor debates a creationist. The University professor knows evolution backwards and forward and can support the evidence very well but has little knowledge of the bible. The creationist knows the bible backward and forward and also took a high school class where he learned a lot about evolution but still believes strongly in creationism. Who is better prepared to discuss the topic?

Discuss with the students what they are going to cover in this chapter. Go through the Organize your Thoughts diagram and the Goals for Learning.

Guided Practice:* Students will work together with their teacher to complete the Community Connection Worksheet. "Adaptation of an Organism in Your Community"

Independent Practice:* Students will work on the vocabulary Preview worksheet.

Duration:

30 minutes + 10-15 for Independent Practice (Could be longer if taken for homework).

Alaska Content Standards Addressed in this lesson:

• SCI A-13 Students will understand the theory of natural selection as an explanation for evidence of changes in life forms over time (Evolution and Natural Selection).
• SCI A-14 Students will understand
  • the interdependence between living things and their environments:,
  • that the living environments consists of individuals, populations, and communities: and
  • that a small change in a portion of an environment may affect the entire environment (Interdependence);

• SCI A-15 Students will use science to understand and describe the local environment (Local Knowledge); and:
• SCI C - 1. know how the words "fact," "observation," "concept," "principle," "law," and "theory" are generally used in the scientific community;
• SCI C- 3. understand that society, culture, history, and environment affect the development of scientific knowledge;