Station 1 : Darwin s Evidence #1 - Old Earth From Haedan Earth (4.6 billion years ago), to Rodinia Earth (1 billion years ago), to the Earth we live on today, the Earth has undergone slow and continual changes. Read the key moments in Earth s transformative history through this simulation (Haedan through Future), and answer your corresponding questions. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/travel-through-deep-time-interactive-ear th-180952886/ 1. What are the nine time eras discussed in this simulation? 2. What are the major factors that affect climate change? 3. How does evidence of old Earth support Darwin s theory of evolution? 4. How has the Earth changed over time? 5. What are the forces that have been acting on the Earth s surface causing the changes we see? 6. After the simulation and the reading from the Darwin s Evidences packet, how does the concept of uniformitarianism help us understand the age of the Earth? 7. The Earth is constantly changing due to the many forces acting upon it. Make a hypothesis, based on the trends you observed from this simulation, for what the Earth s climate and structure will be in 100 million years. Explain why you think this will occur and evidence from the past to support this prediction.
Station 2: Darwin s Evidence #2 - Fossils In front of you is 3 different fossils, a piece of petrified wood, a fossilized shell, and a fossilized land mammal. Read the following paragraphs, examine the fossils and answer the required questions. Fossils are formed in a number of different ways, but most are formed when a plant or animal dies in a watery environment and is buried in mud and silt. Soft tissues quickly decompose leaving the hard bones or shells behind. Over time sediment builds over the top and hardens into rock. As the covered bones break down, minerals soak in replacing the organic material cell by cell in a process called "petrification." Alternatively the bones may completely decay leaving a cast of the organism. The space left behind may then fill with minerals making a stone replica of the organism. By far the most common fossil remains are those of shelled invertebrate sea loving creatures such as snails, corals, and clams. These make up most of the fossil record. Plants can leave fossils. In fact coal is the fossil record of whole forests; however, individual plant structures usually do not survive as the plant materials are compressed to less than one hundredth of their original size. Fossils of land animals are harder to find than those of plants. In order to become fossilized, animals must die in a watery environment and become buried in the mud and silt. Because of this requirement most land creatures never get the chance to become fossilized unless they die next to a lake or stream. Indeed there may be whole species of land animals in which no fossil record has been discovered. We may never know how many and diverse these animals were. 1. Why is it important to know how fossils are formed? 2. After reading the information above, summarize how fossils are formed. 3. How does Darwin use fossils as an evidence for evolution? 4. After reading the 3 paragraphs above, look at the three different fossils in front of you. Write a short scenario on how each one of those fossils formed
Station 3: Darwin s Evidence #2 - Fossils Fossil Record of Horses The fossil record provides snapshots of the past that, when assembled, illustrate a panorama of evolutionary change over the past four billion years. The picture may be smudged in places and may have bits missing, but fossil evidence clearly shows that life is old and has changed over time. 1. Looking at the fossils found of ancestors to the modern day horse, what changes do you observe? 2. What were the four different horses? How long ago did each live? 3. Horses have seen a large increase in size over the past 10 million years. Why do you believe these large variation in sizes have occurred and they didn t stay the same size?
Station 4: Darwin s Evidence #3- Vestigial Organs Evolution and Whale Appendages Watch the following video on vestigial structures located within whales and then answer your questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggzdqqbcmme 1. What vestigial organs do whales have? 2. What is a vestigial organ? 3. How does this example of a vestigial organ support Darwin s theory of evolution? 4. What mammals are the whale s arm, hand, and finger bones the same as, as described in the video? 5. Based off of the readings, and the video on whale appendages, do you think vestigial organs can evolve into a functional, essential body part? Why or why not? 6. As described in Darwin s Evidence #3 Unborn Baleen whales have teeth, but when they grow up they do not have a tooth in their head. Why do you think vestigial organs are observed in unborn organisms as well?
Station 5: Darwin s Evidence #4 - Homologous Structures Evolution of Appendages Follow the evolution of appendages through this simulation. Then, reset the simulation for the next group and answer your corresponding questions: http://www.nature.ca/discover/exm/evltnfppndgs/index_e.html 1. How are the changes different in the simulation watched from the Morganucodon to the sloth to the bat? How are they similar? 2. How does Darwin use homologous structures as evidence of evolution? 3. How have these forelimbs evolved to better help each organism survive their habitats? 4. The Morganucodon forelimb also evolved into the horse forelimb. What similarities do you see from human arms to horse forelimbs?
Station 6: Darwin s Evidence #5 - Embryology Watch the following videos at the same time to show the development of the embryo in a fish, mouse, and chicken. When you have finished watching the videos, reset them for the next group. Then, answer your corresponding questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pedajvadlgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzfbvakam34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nad-l4wzwhw&t=213s 1. How was the development of the fish, mouse, and chicken similar and different? What were your initial observations after reviewing the videos? 2. How can reviewing the progression of embryo development help show the evolution of species over time? 3. How does embryology provide evidence for Darwin s theory of evolution? 4. The embryos of reptiles, mammals, and birds develop the same initially (even some of the same structures such as gills). Why do you think this occurs?
Station 7: Darwin s Evidence #5 - Embryology Put the pieces in order. When you are finished, answer your corresponding questions and then mix up the pieces for the next group. 1. What order did you put the different stages in? Why? 2. Write a paragraph (5 sentences) comparing the stages of the different species and how it helps explain Darwin s theory of evolution.
Station 8: Darwin s Evidence #6 - Artificial Selection Artificial selection, or selective breeding is the process of favoring traits in plants and animals to try and make those traits more prevalent. A great example of this is the Brassica family set before you. Humans began selecting various traits from Wild Mustard like leaves, flowers, and roots which eventually created whole new species of plants that are now known as vegetables. Before you are examples of vegetables that came from artificially selecting traits from wild mustard. Look at the examples and attempt to answer the questions required of you. 1. Look at each modern veggie, what part do you think they favored in the Wild mustard to help evolve these new species of plant/vegetable? (roots, leaves, stem, flower) 2. Which ones do you think were the first veggies bred from the wild mustard? Why do you think that? Put in order of oldest to newest. 3. This isn t the only example! People have selected certain species of animals as well. Can you name any? (think pets!)
Station 9: Darwin s Evidence #6 - Cow Breeding Look at the pictures of the four different breeds of cattle (Highland, Holsteins, Braunvieh, Wagyu) and then answer the following questions: 1. Humans breed cattle for these purposes. Producing milk, producing meat, survival in different environments, using as a task animal. When you look at the pictures, what was the purpose of each of those cows? 2. What similarities do you see from current variations of cows to their ancestors? What differences? 3. How has animal and plant breeding provided evidence for the concept of evolution? 4. If humans started to backwards breed toward characteristics of the ancestral species, do you think we could ever get back to that ancestral species? Why?
Station 10: Darwin s Evidence #7 - The Succession of Types Evolution of the Armadillo Versus Evolution of the Sloth Look at the different lineages of the armadillo and the sloth. With your group, try to place the descendants in the correct order based on age. After you ve placed the different lineages in an order, explain in one to two paragraphs why you put the sloths and armadillos in this order.
Station 11: Darwin s Evidence #8 - Representative Types Florida Panther versus Rocky Mountain Lion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkxgrlxq40c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=newm1eiwil4 1. Do you believe these two animals are the same species? Why or why not? Make a hypothesis. After creating your hypothesis, watch one minute of the following videos and then answer the following questions: 2. Identify characteristics in common. Are there any characteristics they do not have in common? 3. How does Darwin use the concept of representative types as evidence for his theory of evolution? 4. Was your hypothesis correct? Why or why not? 5. You have two animals that are almost identical. How can one of these animals survive in the mountains while the other is in the swamps of Florida? Is this something you would expect? Defend your answer.
Station 13: Darwin s Evidence #9 - Ocean Islands Ocean Islands and Darwin s Finches Charles Darwin when exploring the Galapagos islands observed many different species of finches whose beaks and other physical characteristics were adapted perfectly to the environment of the island that finch lived on. Look at each island's description, can you and your partner match the finch species to the correct island that it s native too? 1. What do you think each finch eats? 2. How can an environment change what an animal looks like? 3. What finch did you put on each island? Why? 4. Why are there so many unique species to the Galapagos islands? 5. If the Cactus Ground Finch was blown off course and landed on Isabela, how would it have to change to be successful in that environment?
Station 12: Darwin s Evidence #9 - Ocean Islands Darwin s Finches There are three different types of beaks located in front of you to represent three different Darwin finches and their beaks located on the Galapagos Islands. In the tray, there are different types of foods (beans, seeds, etc.). With your partner, choose one of the beaks and have each of you try to collect as much food as you can in 30 seconds with each beak. After you have competed with the three different types of beaks, answer the following questions: 1. Which beak had the easiest time getting the different foods? 2. Why would finches have different beaks? 3. How might beak association support Darwin s use of ocean islands as evidence for evolution?
Station 14: Darwin s Evidence #11 - Adaptations Build a fish to survive in an environment using the interactive website in front of you. Choose Body, type of teeth/head and color pattern. After you have developed your fish, answer the corresponding questions: http://interactivesites.weebly.com/animal-adaptations.html 1. What body did you choose? What are some advantages of that body? 2. What teeth/head did you chose? Why does that work well with the body you chose? 3. How does Darwin use evidence of adaptations to explain his theory of evolution? 4. Why do these adaptations only work well in the one environment? 5. Draw your fish, why did you chose those adaptations? 6. Looking at the fish you created, what real fish does it remind you of? Why?
Station 15: Darwin s Evidence #12 - Variation www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/science/virtual_labs/ls06/ls06.html Choose a mutation to investigate by clicking the arrow at the bottom of the Mutations window. Select animals with Large Body/Long Legs, Small Body/White Fur, or Claws for Climbing. Click the arrow at the bottom of the Conditions window and select a condition that will affect the survival of the selected animals. Click the Begin Natural Selection button to observe what happens to the animals after five generations given the selected condition. Note: The small number of animals shown is intended to represent the whole population. Click the Population Graph button to open a graph of data for the entire population s changes over five generations. The yellow line represents the population of animals with the mutation (mutant animals). The blue line represents the population of animals without the mutation (normal animals). Answer your corresponding questions: 1. What is natural variation within a species? 2. How is variation used as evidence to explain Darwin s theory of evolution? 3. Look at the information you reviewed in the graphs for a particular mutation. Describe how the population of animals varied over time. 4. How might variation influence survival of a species? 5. Invent a new type of mutation and a new environmental condition that might affect this population of animals. How might natural selection operate on a population with this new mutation and new condition? How would the population change over time?
Station 16: Darwin s Evidence #13 - Classification In science, the process of organizing species into groups is called Taxonomy. In the link below you will need to classify either a Polar Bear, an Orchid, or a Sea Cucumber. After you have classified one of the following organisms, reset the interactive website for the next group and answer the corresponding questions PBS Interactive - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/classifying-life.html 1. Which living thing did you attempt to classify? List the classification of the species you did. 2. What order does your species belong to? Why? 3. How does Darwin use classification based on common characteristics as evidence of the process of evolution? 4. Why might grouping organisms this way help scientists learn more about a species? 5. Early classification systems grouped organisms whether they were harmful or beneficial. Current science now groups organisms by their genetics. What other ways can you think people might classify organisms?
Station 17 : Convergent Evolution Divergent evolution occurs when two species share a common ancestor but have different characteristics than another. Species like the ball cactus and ball euphorb are species that have evolved from very different ancestors and opposite parts of the world. They now look very similar. This concept of organisms that are not closely related and evolving very similar adaptations is called convergent evolution. Convergent evolution occurs when two different species do not share a common ancestor but have developed similar characteristics through adaptation to similar environmental conditions. 1. What are some similarities you see between these species? 2. Why might these very different species have these similarities? 3. How is convergent evolution different from divergent evolution? 4. Think of at least one more example of convergent evolution. 5. Looking at the ball cactus and the ball euphorb, what do you believe their habitats are like?