Storyline: St. Clair Fern Fossils (Teacher & Student Edition)

ZIP file containing 3 PDF files

(1 Teacher Edition, 1 Student Edition, 1 Science Outside Terms and Conditions)

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS):

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) and Performance Expectations:
MS-LS4-1 — Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity Fossil evidence documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms throughout the history of life on Earth.
Relevance: The fossil ferns from St. Clair provide a rich data set to study patterns in the fossil record and how life has changed over time.
Performance Expectation:
Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

MS-ESS1-4 — Earth's Place in the Universe
ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth The geologic time scale is interpreted from rock layers and fossil evidence to organize Earth’s history.

Relevance: The mention of the Pennsylvanian Period and Carboniferous Era ties directly into using fossil and rock layers to understand Earth's history.
Performance Expectation:
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.

MS-ESS2-1 — Earth's Systems
ESS2.A: Earth’s Materials and Systems
Earth’s systems interact in multiple ways to shape Earth’s surface. Energy from the Sun and Earth’s interior drive these processes.
Relevance: Describing how plant material transformed into coal and how minerals like pyrophyllite replaced organic material relates to geologic processes and the cycling of Earth’s materials.
Performance Expectation:
Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.

MS-LS4-2 — Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity Comparing similarities and differences in anatomical structures in fossils and living organisms provides evidence of evolutionary relationships.
Relevance: Comparing fossil genera like Alethopteris, Neuropteris, and Pecopteris to modern ferns demonstrates evolutionary relationships over time.
Performance Expectation:
Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

MS-ESS2-2 — Earth's Systems
ESS2.A: Earth’s Materials and Systems Processes such as erosion, sedimentation, and burial change the Earth’s surface over time.

Relevance: The transformation of ancient swamps into shale and coal is an example of long-term geoscience processes.
Performance Expectation:
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.
Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs):
● Analyzing and interpreting data (MS-LS4-1)
● Constructing explanations based on evidence (MS-ESS1-4, MS-LS4-2, MS-ESS2-2)
● Developing and using models (MS-ESS2-1)
Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs):
● Patterns (in fossil records)
● Scale, proportion, and quantity (geologic time)
● Stability and change (evolution of organisms and Earth's surface)