Introduction
Teacher's Component
Standards
Requirements
Assessment
Other Lessons
Related Resources
Return to IU Digital Curriculum Guide
TO THE TOUR!
|
PURPOSE
The purpose of this module is to give students a broad overview of the
concepts used/needed to understand that all living things have a history. This module can
be used as an introduction to the study of evolution and/or an introduction
to other Explorations Through Time that address the concepts in more detail.
OVERVIEW
Students move at a self-selected pace through a series of screens that
give an introduction to the history and diversity of life as a result of evolution. They
learn about geologic time, fossils, ancestral relationships, cladograms, variation,
natural selection, and extinction. As students proceed through the module they respond
to on-line questions that are kept as a student journal and can be used for assessment.
OBJECTIVES
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the following major concepts:
- Life is very diverse and always has been.
- The biodiversity we see is a result of evolution.
- Evolution has occurred over geologic time.
- Fossils provide the evidence for the history of life on Earth.
- A fossil is any trace of an animal or plant that was once alive.
- Fossil evidence indicates that life has changed over time.
- Fossils help us to identify the relationships among groups of related organisms.
- Closely related organisms share features inherited from common ancestors.
- Scientists use diagrams called cladograms to illustrate evolutionary relationships.
- Morphological features, and DNA can provide scientists with information about ancestry.
- Even though related organisms inherit common features, variations exist within
populations.
- Variation contributes to the process of evolution.
- Natural selection and variation together cause evolutionary change.
- Natural selection is not the only mechanism of evolution.
- During the process of evolution, only a small percentage of species has survived.
- Though all living things are related through a common ancestry, life continues to
change resulting in the biodiversity we see today.
|