LTLT#3 Final Adaptations Project

Outline/Planning Sheet

LTLT#3 Final Adaptations Project:

Outline & Planning Sheet

Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________ Class Period: ____________________

Use this planning sheet to answer the questions, and begin to draft your article

Paragraph 1: Introduce your article

a.      Give your organism a name

b.      What is a fossil? Describe or define the word fossil.

c.      Who discovered the organism? What are their names?

Paragraph 2: Provide some background or interesting details about the trip

a.      When was this organism discovered?

b.      Where was this organism discovered??

c.      How old is the organism?

d.     Did the scientists find any other organisms near or around the big find?

Paragraph 3: Findings

a.      Describe your organism’s physical features: what traits does it have? List 5-7 traits

1.                                                                             5.

2.                                                                             6.

3.                                                                             7.

4.

b.      What is a trait? Describe or define it.

c.      Where did the animal live?

d.     What did it eat? (Predator/prey)

e.      What ate it? (Predator/prey)

f.       Did it have any competition?

g.      Did it work with another other organisms? (Mutualism)

h.     Was it neighbors with any other organisms? (Commensalism)

Paragraph 4 Animal Adaptations 

a.      How does this organism get its food?

b.     What parts of its body helps it get food?

c.      How does it protect itself from predators?

d.     How does it survive?

e.      How does your organism protect itself? Does it run fast? Is it big? Is it armored?

Paragraph 5: Evolution & Changes over time

a.      What is the theory of evolution? Define or describe it.

b.      Does your animal have any ancestors? What are their names?

c.      How has your organism has changed over time? What was it like in the past?

d.     What might have happened to make it change?

e.      Did the environment change, did the climate or weather change, was there a flood or a drought?

Paragraph 6: Conclude your article

a.      What are the people going to do with their newly discovered organism??

b.      Are they going to sell it, study it, put it in a museum?

c.       How has finding the organism changed their lives? Are they famous?

d.      What are they going to do next?  

Tuesday December 9, 2014
LTLT#3 Final Adaptations Project

LTLT#3 Adaptations Project

Assigned Tuesday December 9, 2014       Due Monday December 15, 2014

Name: __________________________ Date: ______________ Class Period: _________________

Objective: For this project, you will be writing an article about a newly found fossil.

1.  You will need to describe what was found (Traits)

2.  What the organism once was (A land animal, a sea animal, a flying animal)

3.  What can you infer (guess) about it. (Example: if it is a fish, then it probably lived in an ocean)

You can borrow features from other animals to help create yours, but your final animal must be unique.

You also need to draw a picture for your animal, and label it telling what each adaptation is and how it helped the animal survive.

Get creative! Have fun!!!

NEWS ARTICLE RUBRIC

EXEMPLARY	·       Creative and highly interesting to read
ACCOMPLISHED	·       Includes at least 6 paragraphs about your findings (5-7 sentences per paragraph) ·       Give the organism a name ·       Describe the organism, with 5-7 traits ·       Includes interesting details about the trip and the organism found. ·       Includes a labeled picture of your animal ·       Must be legible (able to be read) Can be handwritten or typed ·       Proofread and grammatically correct ·       Includes at least 2 drafts
DEVELOPING/ACCOMPLISHED	Missing one to three of the above items
DEVELOPING	Missing three to five of the above items
BEGINNING	Missing more than five of the above items

Project Steps:

Step 1: Answer the following questions

Step 2: Write a first draft. Can be handwritten neatly, or typed.

Step 3: Meet with a peer editor

Step 4: Revise your draft

Step 5: Conference with Ms. Mac

Step 6: Write a final draft

Outline/Prompt Questions

1.    Introduce your article

a.      What is the organism you will be talking about in the article?

b.     Give your organism a name

c.      What is a fossil? Define it.

d.     Who discovered the organism? What are their names?

e.      When was this organism discovered?

f.       Where was this organism discovered??

g.      How old is the organism?

2.    Provide some background or interesting details about the trip

a.      How long did it take for the people to discover the organism?

b.     Were there any hardships the people encountered??

c.      Did the scientists find any other organisms near or around the big find?

3.    Findings

a.      Describe your organism’s physical features: what traits does it have? List 5-7 traits

b.     Where did the animal live?

c.      What did it eat? (Predator/prey)

d.     What ate it? (Predator/prey)

e.      Did it have any competition?

f.       Did it work with another other organisms? (Mutualism)

g.      Was it neighbors with any other organisms? (Commensalism)

4.    Animal Adaptations 

a.     How does this organism get its food?

b.     What parts of its body helps it get food?

c.     How does it protect itself from predators?

d.     How does it survive?

e.     How does your organism protect itself? Does it run fast? Is it big? Is it armored?

5. Evolution & Changes over time

a.      What is the theory of evolution? Define or describe it.

b.     Does your animal have any ancestors? What are their names?

c.      How has your organism has changed over time? What was it like in the past?

d.     What might have happened to make it change? Did the environment change, did the climate or weather change, was there a flood or a drought?

6.    Conclude your article

a.      What are the people going to do with their newly discovered organism?? Are they going to sell it, study it, put it in a museum?

b.      How has finding the organism changed their lives? Are they famous?

c.       What are they going to do next?  

Monday December 8, 2014

LT: I can describe how fossils can be used to study the evolution or changes of organisms

Name_________________________ Date: ____________ Class Period:____________

DIRECTIONS: Read the information below and follow the direction carefully!

In this activity, we will be playing a team of scientists working in the field in Chile, South America. We are experts in TRANSITION FOSSILS-fossils that show characteristics of different organisms and how they have changed or evolved over time, from one species to another.

Part 1: On the first day of our work we find a well-preserved and complete fossil set of bones in the top shallow layer of the ground, but we need to piece them together to try and figure out what they are.

It is too late in the day to continue with the dig, so you return to camp with your find. That night, in camp, after dinner we begin to assemble the bones we found earlier. Since the bones were all found together and in an undisturbed layer, we assume that they are all from the same animal. We spend the rest of the evening trying different arrangements of the bones in hopes of identifying the animal.

Fossil C:  ACTION!!!

Take out fossil C pieces and put them together. Now answer the questions below…

1.     What type of animal do you think this is a fossil of?

2.     Why do you think that?

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Part 2: We head out for another morning of digging. Just the kind of day you need to get work done at the dig. We dig even deeper in the ground today. We find another set of fossils in an undisturbed layer. Today it is early in the day when we make our find, so we have plenty of time to try and assemble it before heading back to camp.

Fossil B:  ACTION!!!

Take out fossil B pieces and put them together. Now answer the questions below.

1.     What type of animal do you think this is? Why do you think that?

2.     How fossil B similar to fossil C?

3.     How is fossil B different from fossil C?

4.     Is fossil B older or younger than fossil C?

Part 3: The next day is cold. It is the last day of the digging season. At the end of the long day and after digging even farther down into the ground, we find another full set of fossil bones in an undisturbed layer. We have to hurry to put the bones together so we can get on the road and head back to our laboratory.

Fossil A:  ACTION!!

Take out fossil A pieces and put them together. Now answer the following questions below.

1.     What organism do you think fossil A comes from?

2.     Is fossil A older or younger than fossil B or fossil C? Why?

3.     How is fossil A different from fossil B?

4.     How is fossil A similar to fossil B?

5.     Are there any similarities between fossil A and fossil C? What are they?

Part 4: Now we are back in the laboratory and we are able to use carbon dating to find out that fossil A is 52 million years old. Fossil B is 45 million years old, and fossil C is 40 million years old. We also have access to our fossil library. We are going to use the fossil library to determine which animal, fossil C comes from.

Fossil C 40 million years old

Fossil B 45 million years old

Fossil A 52 million years old

ACTION!

Look through the fossil library and try to identify fossil C. Then answer the questions below

1.     What animal is fossil C? Check with Ms. Mac once you do this

2.     Now that you know what the fossil is, what big discover can you make about how it has changed over time?

3.     Based on your fossil evidence, where did this organism used to live before it was the ancestral whale?

4.     Where did it live at the time of its death?

5.     Why do you think it may have evolved or changed this way?

6. What environmental conditions do you think occurred to make it change in this way?