sign in sign up
<<
Home , Early Earth, Geology, History of Earth, Nature

The of and on

Name

Date

Use the “ OF LIFE ON EARTH” in the of exhibit to learn about the on Earth. Then, continue to the exhibit to answer questions on the geologic and the exhibit in African Hall to learn about the history of .

1 History

When did first evolve? Describe what the first life to evolve 3.5 billion ago was like.

What structures allowed these early plants to survive on land? Explain your answer.

Estimate This...

The length of the Academy from the east to west Length of the Academy as a scaled timeline of Earth windows is about 450 feet or 137 meters.

If this length represented the entire 4.6 billion history of Earth and started by the Earthquake exhibit, how far to the other side would you have to walk before you were at a when life first Islands of Evolution evolved (3.5 )? Mark your guess with a Earthquake along the dotted line on the map. African Hall How far would you have to walk to the point when simple marine evolved, 650 million years ago? Mark this estimate with an x along the East Windows = West Windows = Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago dotted line on the map. 2 Islands of Evolution 3 Earthquake For each date write what groups of flourished Use the interactive Plate Movement screens to label on earth (mark with a star), recently evolved (mark the pictures. The first two are from the Southern with an up arrow), or went extinct (mark with an X). Hemisphere view; the rest are from the Atlantic Not all have all three categories. view. Possible dates are 200, 125, 66, 30, and 2 million years ago. Southern 250 million years ago African Hall: Hemisphere Human Odyssey 4 (Part 1) Fill in each box with the key in that occurred at ______200 that time. million years ago 10 million years ago Southern 125 million years ago Hemisphere

8-7 million years ago ______million years ago

Atlantic 66 million years ago Ocean (11 million years before 50 million years ago) __ million years ago (For this box, fill in the timepoint as a range.)

Genus evolved. ______Imagine what the Earth looked like around this time. Hint: There is a million years ago picture of it on this page. Atlantic 30 million years ago Ocean 200,000 years ago

______million years ago

Revisit the map on the first Examine the next to Atlantic page showing the length of the timeline. What can these Ocean the Academy as a scaled fossils tell us about life on Earth timeline of the Earth. millions of years ago? What Mark your estimate of when can’t fossils tell us modern humans evolved about ancient life? with a square. ______million years ago 4 African Hall: Human Odyssey (Part 2) The history of modern humans continues with their migration out of . View the large migration map screen and use the interactive below the screen to fill in the boxes with the areas of the populated with modern humans at each timepoint. Notice how change affected migration patterns.

Today

125,000 100,000 65,000 55,000 25,000 10,000 200,000 years ago (modern humans evolved)

5 Critical Thinking Discuss with a Friend

» When one of species goes extinct, like the , why do other groups of species soon thrive on Earth? » How have humans adapted to the variety of environments in which they live? Remember that include both physical and behavioral adaptations. » Reflecting on all of the time scales you experienced today, what was most surprising to you? The and Life on Earth

Name

Date

Use the “TIMELINE OF LIFE ON EARTH” in the Islands of Evolution exhibit to learn about the history of life on Earth. Then, continue to the Earthquake exhibit to answer questions on the geologic history of Earth and the Human Odyssey exhibit in African Hall to learn about the history of humans.

1 Early Earth History

When did land plants first evolve? Describe what the first life to evolve 3.5 billion years ago was like. 450 million years ago Single celled, including that could use from the to make food and release into the What structures allowed these early plants to survive on land? Explain your answer.

waxy exterior keeps them from drying out and pores allow them to exchange with the air

Estimate This...

The length of the Academy from the east to west Length of the Academy as a scaled timeline of Earth windows is about 450 feet or 137 meters.

If this length represented the entire 4.6 billion year history of Earth and started by the Earthquake   exhibit, how far to the other side would you have to walk before you were at a time when life first Islands of Evolution evolved (3.5 billion years)? Mark your guess with a Earthquake star along the dotted line on the map. African Hall How far would you have to walk to the point when simple marine organisms evolved, 650 million years ago? Mark this estimate with an x along the East Windows = Present day West Windows = Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago dotted line on the map. 2 Islands of Evolution 3 Earthquake For each date write what groups of species flourished Use the interactive Plate Movement screens to label on earth (mark with a star), recently evolved (mark the pictures. The first two are from the Southern with an up arrow), or went extinct (mark with an X). Hemisphere view; the rest are from the Atlantic Not all have all three categories. Ocean view. Possible dates are 200, 125, 66, 30, and 2 million years ago. Southern 250 million years ago African Hall: Hemisphere  95% of all species Human Odyssey  (or ) club mosses and reptiles on land; in 4 (Part 1) the , snails and clams  Oceans teem with , squid, large Fill in each box with the key event swimming reptiles and ammonites (extinct in human evolution that occurred at ______200 molluscs) that time. million years ago 10 million years ago Southern 125 million years ago Humans and Hemisphere diverged from gorillas.  dinosaurs dominate the land  flowering plants evolve in tandem with pollinating insects  modern groups of insects, including 8-7 million years ago ants, butterflies, aphids, grasshoppers, and ______66 termites Humans and chimpanzees million years ago  modern forms of diverged from each other.

66 million years ago Atlantic (11 million years before 50 million years ago) 2.4______- 1.4 million years ago Ocean  Dinosaurs (For this box, fill in the timepoint as a range.) Students may also include that most modern groups of – including Homo evolved. early – as as grasses evolved. Though, strictly speaking, this happened Imagine what the Earth looked like ______30 around this time. Hint: There is a between 66 and 50 million years ago. million years ago picture of it on this page.

Atlantic 30 million years ago Ocean  grasslands  mammals on the land 200,000 years ago  monkeys and the early ancestors of  most modern groups Modern humans (Homo sapiens)  modern groups of marine evolved.  (or) marine invertebrates diversify ______125 million years ago

Revisit the map on the first Examine the fossils next to Atlantic page showing the length of the timeline. What can these Ocean the Academy as a scaled fossils tell us about life on Earth timeline of the Earth. millions of years ago? What Mark your estimate of when information can’t fossils tell us modern humans evolved about ancient life? with a square. ______2 million years ago 4 African Hall: Human Odyssey (Part 2) The history of modern humans continues with their migration out of Africa. View the large migration map screen and use the interactive timelines below the screen to fill in the boxes with the areas of the world populated with modern humans at each timepoint. Notice how affected migration patterns.

Africa Africa Africa or the Today

125,000 100,000 65,000 55,000 25,000 10,000 200,000 years ago (modern humans evolved)

Africa Africa Africa Middle East Middle East Middle East The tropics The tropics The tropics (for example, Southeast Southeast Asia India) China China Australia Europe The Americas

5 Critical Thinking Discuss with a Friend

» When one group of species goes extinct, like the dinosaurs, why do other groups of species soon thrive on Earth? » How have humans adapted to the variety of environments in which they live? Remember that adaptations include both physical and behavioral adaptations. » Reflecting on all of the time scales you experienced today, what was most surprising to you? The History of Geology and Life on Earth

GRADE LEVELS 6th-12th; Content Standards for 6th, 7th, and 9th-12th grades World History and , Life , Earth Sciences, SUBJECTS Investigation and Experimentation DURATION Preparation: 5 Academy: 60 minutes Islands of Evolution exhibit; Earthquake exhibit; African Hall: Human SETTING Odyssey exhibit

Objectives

In this scavenger hunt, students will 1. be introduced to different periods of Earth’s history. 2. relate the slow changes of plate movement to the slow processes of evolution. 3. estimate time scales using the length of the Academy as a model. 4. understand the time scale over which modern humans evolved, migrated, and populated the Earth

Materials

The History of Geology and Life on Earth scavenger hunt Teacher Answer Key pencil or pen scratch paper (optional) clipboard (optional)

Vocabulary

 ancestor: an earlier from which others are derived; a relative from the  descendant: an organism that derives or descends from an earlier form; offspring  diverge: when two lineages branch off in two directions  evolution: changes in the heritable traits of a population of organisms as successive generations replace one another. It is populations of organisms that evolve, not individual organisms  : the remains or imprints of an organism from a previous time  : a continuous line of descent from a particular ancestor  species: a group of organisms that share their most recent common ancestor and can produce viable offspring

Teacher Background There are many great resources that describe the history of life on Earth. We recommend these as a way to prepare yourself for this lesson:  Nova, A Brief History of Life. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/brief-history- life.html  BBC, History of life on Earth. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth  Understanding Evolution. http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/home.php  Institute of Human Origins, Becoming Human. http://www.becominghuman.org/

Teacher and Youth Education, 2013 1 The History of Geology and Life on Earth

Activity

Preparation 1. Print out The History of Geology and Life on Earth scavenger hunt. One per student, or per pair if you would prefer they work together.

Introduction Tell your students that when they visit the California Academy of Sciences, they will be learning about the history of life on Earth. Make sure that they have basic understanding of the processes of evolution and what the terms used in the vocabulary list mean.

Procedure 1. Hand out the scavenger hunts to each student or each pair of students. 2. Before they break into groups to explore the exhibits, point out that there is an order to how they should proceed through the exhibits: starting with the “Timeline of Life on Earth” in Islands of Evolution, stopping in African Hall at the Human Odyssey exhibit, and finishing in the Earthquake exhibit. Note that this is the easiest order to do the hunt, but it can be done out of sequence if that works better for your group. 3. Make sure that students understand the questions on the hunt and point out that a number of questions do not require . Students should instead discuss them with a friend. These questions will also be discussed at the end of the trip. If you feel they will need to write an answer to stay focused, provide them with scratch paper to write their ideas down. 4. Allow plenty of time for students to explore, answer, and discuss the questions on the hunt. 5. As students finish, encourage them to share what they found with their classmates.

Wrap-Up  Go over the answers to the hunt either while still at the Academy or back in the classroom.  Ask where in the scaled timeline of the Academy the 3.5 billion, 650 million and 200,000 year marks were found. You can even gather predictions to see who was the closest.  As a group, discuss the answers to the more open-ended questions: • What can these fossils tell us about life on Earth millions of years ago? (Fossils can provide evidence of the past existence of species that have since gone extinct, they show the physical characteristics of ancient life and how structures have changed over time) What information can’t fossils tell us about ancient life? (Fossils cannot directly show the behavior of an , for example) • When one group of species goes extinct, like the dinosaurs, why do other groups of species soon thrive on Earth? (There are more resources like food, , and living available to the new groups of species who may be better adapted to the changes that caused the ) • How have humans adapted to the variety of environments in which they live? (Examples include skin color, building shelter, and wearing .) • Reflecting on all of the time scales you experienced today, what was most surprising to you?

Teacher and Youth Education, 2013 2 The History of Geology and Life on Earth

 Have students discuss, based on what they saw at the Academy, how plate movement, climate change and evolution might be related.

Extensions This activity gives a brief introduction to the timeline of human evolution. In another Academy lesson, Human Evolution (http://www.calacademy.org/teachers/resources/lessons/human- evolution/) students will learn about the of scientific in the context of human evolution.

Correlated California Content Standards

Grade Six World History and Geography: Ancient 6.1 Students describe what is known through archaeological studies of the early physical and cultural development of humankind from the Paleolithic to the agricultural revolution. 1.Describe the hunter-gatherer societies, including the development of tools and the use of . 2.Identify the locations of human communities that populated the major of the world and describe how humans adapted to a variety of environments. 3.Discuss the climatic changes and human modifications of the physical environment that gave rise to the of plants and animals and new sources of clothing and shelter.

Earth Sciences 1.a. Students know evidence of plate is derived from the fit of the ; the location of , volcanoes, and midocean ridges; and the distribution of fossils, types, and ancient climatic zones.

Investigation and Experimentation 7. g. Interpret events by sequence and time from natural phenomena (e.g., the relative ages of rocks and intrusions).

Grade Seven Earth Sciences 4. a. Students know Earth processes today are similar to those that occurred in the past and slow geologic processes have large cumulative effects over long periods of time. 4.d. Students know that evidence from geologic layers and radioactive dating indicates Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old and that life on this has existed for more than 3 billion years. 4.e. Students know fossils provide evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed. 4.f. Students know how movements of Earth's continental and oceanic plates through time, with associated changes in climate and geographic connections, have affected the past and present distribution of organisms. 4.g. Students know how to explain significant developments and of and animal life on the .

Teacher and Youth Education, 2013 3 The History of Geology and Life on Earth

Investigation and Experimentation 7.d. Construct scale models, maps, and appropriately labeled diagrams to communicate scientific knowledge (e.g., motion of Earth's plates and structure).

Grades Nine through Twelve Evolution 8.e. Students know how to analyze fossil evidence with regard to biological diversity, episodic speciation, and mass extinction.

Investigation and Experimentation 1. i. Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals that are characteristic of natural phenomena (e.g., relative ages of rocks, locations of over time, and of species in an ).

Teacher and Youth Education, 2013 4