Unit 5, Lesson 1: Intro to Life
Learning Target: I can define what it means to be alive.
Class Activities:
1. The kids walked in picked up the intro to life handout, then got to work at the do now on top of the sheet. We chatted about what would happen if a palm seed-eating toucan went extinct. How would the palm tree evolve? How would other animals evolve? Students came up with ideas like, "the seeds would evolve to be carried by the wind, like a dandelion", "the seeds would taste different, to attract a different animal", and "fewer trees might grow, so animals would have less shelter and may have to adapt to new environments."
2. In their groups, students did the part 1 review activity, filling in the blanks. The answers are,
Wow, we’ve traveled far in Big History! We started by looking at the beginning of the universe. For a long time, the universe was basically nothing but the simplest elements, hydrogen and helium. Eventually, these formed into dense clouds called nebula. The temperature began to rise and pressure increased, causing the hydrogen atoms to smash together. This released photons, which are a form of light energy. We call it a star.
When stars run out of hydrogen, gravity causes the star to collapse on itself, again increasing pressure and temperature until it begins to fuse a heavier element and burns photons again. Sometimes elements are so heavy that incredibly intense heat and temperatures are required. In this way, all the elements were created.
Around these stars were flat, cloud-like disks of dust and dirt. They spun around the stars, running into each other and fusing. As more particles ran into each other, the chunks got bigger, in a process known as accretion. Dust became rock, then meteoroids, then asteroids, and eventually, this process formed all eight planets in our solar system, including our Earth.
When Earth was very young, it was hot/covered in magma/hellish. Earth has changed a lot over time, but eventually, it acquired all the qualities necessary for Threshold 5, Life. Its magnetic field protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation. Its tilt allows us to receive direct and indirect sunlight, giving us our seasons. Tectonic plates is basically our crust shifting and “surfing” over the hot liquid mantle, and causes complexity because they form different physical features like mountains and valleys, which makes animals adapt differently.
3. We watched an 8 minute video clip that I can't find on youtube, sorry. If you are registered on Big History, go to Unit 5 , then click on the 12 minute clip that has a cartoon picture of an egg. Basically, you need to know that:
-Life began in a chemical process in the ocean
-Bacteria was the first life form
-The ability to lay eggs allowed animals to go onto land
-There were 5 mass extinctions
-The extinction of the dinosaurs allowed mammals (and by proxy, us) to evolve and dominate the Earth.
4. In their groups, students worked on part 3 (on the back of the worksheet). We'll do part 4 in the next lesson.
Papers handed in today:
Self-assessment sheets from the socratic seminar
Homework:
None, but homework from unit 4 is due by the next lesson!
Class Activities:
1. The kids walked in picked up the intro to life handout, then got to work at the do now on top of the sheet. We chatted about what would happen if a palm seed-eating toucan went extinct. How would the palm tree evolve? How would other animals evolve? Students came up with ideas like, "the seeds would evolve to be carried by the wind, like a dandelion", "the seeds would taste different, to attract a different animal", and "fewer trees might grow, so animals would have less shelter and may have to adapt to new environments."
2. In their groups, students did the part 1 review activity, filling in the blanks. The answers are,
Wow, we’ve traveled far in Big History! We started by looking at the beginning of the universe. For a long time, the universe was basically nothing but the simplest elements, hydrogen and helium. Eventually, these formed into dense clouds called nebula. The temperature began to rise and pressure increased, causing the hydrogen atoms to smash together. This released photons, which are a form of light energy. We call it a star.
When stars run out of hydrogen, gravity causes the star to collapse on itself, again increasing pressure and temperature until it begins to fuse a heavier element and burns photons again. Sometimes elements are so heavy that incredibly intense heat and temperatures are required. In this way, all the elements were created.
Around these stars were flat, cloud-like disks of dust and dirt. They spun around the stars, running into each other and fusing. As more particles ran into each other, the chunks got bigger, in a process known as accretion. Dust became rock, then meteoroids, then asteroids, and eventually, this process formed all eight planets in our solar system, including our Earth.
When Earth was very young, it was hot/covered in magma/hellish. Earth has changed a lot over time, but eventually, it acquired all the qualities necessary for Threshold 5, Life. Its magnetic field protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation. Its tilt allows us to receive direct and indirect sunlight, giving us our seasons. Tectonic plates is basically our crust shifting and “surfing” over the hot liquid mantle, and causes complexity because they form different physical features like mountains and valleys, which makes animals adapt differently.
3. We watched an 8 minute video clip that I can't find on youtube, sorry. If you are registered on Big History, go to Unit 5 , then click on the 12 minute clip that has a cartoon picture of an egg. Basically, you need to know that:
-Life began in a chemical process in the ocean
-Bacteria was the first life form
-The ability to lay eggs allowed animals to go onto land
-There were 5 mass extinctions
-The extinction of the dinosaurs allowed mammals (and by proxy, us) to evolve and dominate the Earth.
4. In their groups, students worked on part 3 (on the back of the worksheet). We'll do part 4 in the next lesson.
Papers handed in today:
Self-assessment sheets from the socratic seminar
Homework:
None, but homework from unit 4 is due by the next lesson!
9global_intro_to_life_handout.pdf | |
File Size: | 167 kb |
File Type: |