Click "Print Lesson" button to use your browser print Student Name: Alethea
Date Printed: Jan 11, 2015
Science 3
Unit 4: Ecosystems of the Past
Lesson 1: Animals of the Ancient Reefs
Duration: Approx. 60 min.
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Lesson 1: Animals of the Ancient Reefs
| | Cenozoic [see-nuh-ZOH-ihk] |
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| | cephalopod [SEH-fuh-luh-pahd] |
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| | crinoid [KRIY-noyd] |
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| evidence | |
| A thing or information used to form a conclusion or make a judgment. Evidence leads scientists to think that coral reefs similar to the reefs of today existed in the distant past. |
| extinct | |
| No longer existing. A group of living things that has died out. Scientists have evidence that trilobytes became extinct a long time ago. |
| | Mesozoic [meh-zuh-ZOH-ihk] |
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| | Paleozoic [pay-lee-uh-ZOH-ihk] |
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| | receptaculid [ree-sep-TAK-kyuh-lihd] |
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| | Silurian [sih-LOUR-ee-uhn] |
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| Silurian period | |
| A period of time used by scientists to discuss the ancient past that began 438 million years ago and lasted about 40 million years. Scientists think coral reefs thrived in warm, shallow waters during the Silurian period. |
| | stromatoporoid [stroh-muh-tuh-POR-oyd] |
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| | trilobite [TRIY-luh-biyt] |
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This activity is best completed online.
| What lives in the ocean's coral reefs? Have coral reefs changed over time? See how scientists view ancient reefs to compare the plants and animals of today with those from the ancient Silurian period. | | |||||||
| Lesson Overview
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This activity is best completed online.
| Optional Lesson Instructions This lesson is OPTIONAL. It is provided for students who seek enrichment or extra practice. You may skip this lesson. If you choose to skip this lesson, then go to the Plan or Lesson Lists page and mark this lesson “Skipped” in order to proceed to the next lesson in the course. |
This activity is best completed online.
| Examining evidence about ecosystems of the distant past helps us understand what can happen to plants and animals over time. | |
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| Scientists use this evidence to figure out how life on Earth was different in the past. The evidence shows that the same major influences on ecosystem climates of today--sunlight, temperature, and rainfall--affected ecosystems of the past in similar ways. The evidence also shows that some plants and animals that thrived long ago are no longer living, while other plants and animals have changed very little over time. Let's look back at a number of ecosystems you're already familiar with, starting with reefs. You already know that coral reefs are large, stony structures found in shallow tropical water. Small animals called corals build these reefs. Reefs are home to an amazing variety of animals and plants. | |
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| | Fossils are remains of ancient life. By looking at fossils that have patterns very similar to patterns in modern coral reefs, scientists have concluded that many places around the world used to be reefs, including Sweden, northern Greenland, and some of the area around Chicago, Illinois! |
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| | The ancient reefs we are studying are from what scientists call the Silurian period. By matching similar patterns in rock layers around the world, scientists can tell that in the Silurian period, just as now, reefs formed in shallow seas near the equator, where they could get lots of sunlight. Animals very similar to corals existed at that time as well, and these animals were important reef builders. Fossils from these places show that a tremendous number of different organisms all lived together. |
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| Fossils give scientists evidence that some living things seem to be the same, or nearly the same, now as they were in the distant past. Other fossils show scientists that some living things are no longer alive anywhere in the world. In other words, they are extinct. Even long ago, scientists think that climate and other conditions similar to those of today supported plant and animal communities that looked a lot like the ones we find now. | |
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This activity is best completed online.
| Changes in the Reef How does scientists' view of an ancient reef of the Silurian period compare with ones we see today? Use the notes you are going to take to see which animals scientists think existed long ago are like animals in today's reefs and which have completely disappeared. Follow the instructions in your student guide to complete this optional activity. | |||||||||
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| Which animals that scientists think lived in reefs long ago are similar to ones living in reefs today? Which animals are now extinct? List your answers in your Science Notebook. Before you begin, think about how you can set up your page to sort animals into two groups. | |
This activity is best completed online.
| A Virtual Tour from Past to Present See how many scientists think the ancient reefs looked long ago as you swim through a virtual Silurian reef! Afterwards, you can visit Australia's vast Great Barrier Reef to explore life in this modern ecosystem. | |||||||||
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| Visit Milwaukee Public Museum's Silurian Reef to see and read about scientists' views on more plants and animals of the Silurian reefs. See where these reefs were located around the world (you might be surprised). You can even read about how scientists study the places that once were reefs--like the parking lot of Milwaukee County Stadium in Wisconsin! Dive into National Geographic's Great Barrier Reef website. Look at the map of Australia. The pink area shows the location of the Great Barrier Reef. Get ready to dive underwater, then click Dive Now. Mouse over the plants and animals of the coral reef to find out more about each one. Then, dive deeper to the bottom of the ocean and see what lives there. How do scientists think a Silurian reef was like a modern reef? What did you see that was different? |
Click "Print Lesson" button to use your browser print Student Name: Alethea
Date Printed: Jan 11, 2015
Science 3
Unit 4: Ecosystems of the Past
Lesson 2: Plants and Animals of the Ancient Forests
Duration: Approx. 60 min.
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For the Adult
*balloon
*Digging Up Dinosaurs by Aliki
*meter stick
*What Happened to the Dinosaurs? by Franklyn Branley
*string - or ribbon, 3 to 25 meters
*Dinosaurs Are Different by Aliki
*scissors
*Terrible Tyrannosaurs by Kathleen Weidner Zoefield
*My Visit to the Dinosaurs by Aliki
Lesson 2: Plants and Animals of the Ancient Forests
| | apatosaurus [uh-pa-tuh-SAWR-us] |
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| | carnivore [KAHR-nuh-vor] |
| An animal that feeds mainly on other animals. A tiger is considered a carnivore since its diet is mainly other animals. |
| | cycad [SIY-kuhd] |
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| cycads | |
| A group of evergreen plants that have cones. I could tell which trees were cycads by the cones on their branches. |
| extinct | |
| No longer existing. A group of living things that has died out. Scientists have evidence that trilobytes became extinct a long time ago. |
| | herbivore [UR-buh-vor] |
| An animal that feeds mainly on plants. A cow is considered an herbivore since its diet is mainly plants. |
| | herrarasaurus [huh-rair-uh-SAWR-us] |
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| | icarosaurus [ih-kuh-ruh-SAWR-uhs] |
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| | melanosaurus [muh-lan-uh-SAWR-uhs] |
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| | mussaurus [mous-SAWR-uhs] |
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| | plateosaurus [play-tee-uh-SAWR-uhs] |
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| | staurikosaurus [staw-rih-kuh-SAWR-uhs] |
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| | stegosaurus [steh-guh-SAWR-uhs] |
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| Triassic period | |
| A period that began 245 million years ago. Scientists think dinosaurs lived during the Triassic period. |
| | triceratops [triy-SEHR-uh-tahps] |
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This activity is best completed online.
| What do scientists think lived in the forests of long ago? Journey through an ancient forest to learn more about the plants and animals that lived there. | | |||||||||||
| Lesson Overview
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This activity is best completed online.
| Optional Lesson Instructions This lesson is OPTIONAL. It is provided for students who seek enrichment or extra practice. You may skip this lesson. If you choose to skip this lesson, then go to the Plan or Lesson Lists page and mark this lesson “Skipped” in order to proceed to the next lesson in the course. |
This activity is best completed online.
| The Ancient Forest Scientists imagine a Triassic forest where dinosaurs roamed among the ferns and trees dropped scaly cones onto the forest floor. Learn about plants and animals that scientists think are similar to those living today and those that have left only traces in the rock. | |||||||||
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| Long ago, scientists think forests already had some things in common with the forests we see today. In warm parts of the Earth where growing conditions were good, some plants grew until they towered in the air. There were also animals--animals that adapted to life at each level of these leafy ecosystems. But scientists think the earliest forests were very different from today's forests, as you will see. | |
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| Looking at fossils and rocks from a period of time called the Triassic (triy-A-sihk) period, scientists have found evidence of what the earliest forests were like. Just like the forests of today, scientists think the earliest forests grew in areas that had plenty of rainfall and temperatures that were neither too high nor too low. At that time, much of the land area was quite dry, so the forests grew only along the coasts. | |
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| How do scientists think an ancient forest looked? Scientists have found evidence of plants and animals that are similar to the ones we see today. Scientists have also found evidence of other organisms that are not living now. Just as now, scientists think forests had three main layers, with different plants growing in each layer. But the earliest forests had no flowering plants--only early ferns, ginkgoes (GING-kohs), and trees related to modern-day pines or conifers (KAH-nuh-fuhrs). Reptiles were much more common then than they are today, but small mammals showed up, too. | |
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| Although the evidence shows that many animals were once very different from animals of today, certain patterns are the same. For example, some reptile fossils have sharp, angular teeth--very similar to the teeth of meat-eating animals today! Others have broad, flat, grinding teeth. By comparing fossil bones and claws to those of modern animals, scientists conclude that animals in the past were meat eaters or plant eaters, just like today. Let's jump back in time and go hiking through what scientists think an ancient forest looked like. Some things will look familiar, but others will be amazingly different. | |
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| | Why do scientists think so many organisms from ancient times no longer live in modern forests? By looking at rocks and fossils, scientists have come to suspect that climate change is the reason. Sometimes climates change because lands once linked together break up, or lands once separated get connected. But scientists have also found evidence that climates worldwide just naturally change over very long periods of time. The result is that plants and animals that are getting along fine in a particular place start having trouble. Sometimes the change is very slow, and the plants and animals either change with it or gradually die off. Other times, the change can happen very quickly. Scientists have found good evidence to suggest that a huge meteor may have struck the Earth long ago. They suspect this enormous explosion may have created a huge climate change. That sudden change would have affected most animals and plants around the globe, giving new opportunities to some, while spelling disaster for many others. |
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| Still, sudden changes are rare. Scientists think ecosystems in the distant past usually changed slowly. For example, if a new plant was good at surviving, over time it pushed out other plants. Pines came first in temperate forests, but could not compete in the milder climate, once flowering trees started to grow. Flowering trees took over. It's a marvelous thing to think about how many things have lived on our planet. If you close your eyes, and imagine an ancient forest as scientists do, you are sitting among ancient conifers and cycads, while all around you are the sounds of strange and wonderful creatures moving past. | |
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This activity is best completed online.
| Dinosaur Sort What do scientists think the dinosaurs of the Triassic and Jurassic period were like? Take a closer look at several dinosaurs from these periods to determine whether they were carnivores or herbivores. Follow the instructions in your student guide to complete this optional activity. |
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This activity is best completed online.
| How Tall Were They? How tall do scientists think the dinosaurs were? Compare the height of one dinosaur to your own height. Follow the instructions in your student guide to complete this optional activity. |
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This activity is best completed online.
| What Dinosaurs Lived in Your Backyard? Visit this Smithsonian site to find out more about dinosaurs: Dinosaurs in Our Backyard Learn out about dozens of different kinds of dinosaurs, and click the Fossils link to discover which ones may have lived in your own area. | |||||||||
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This activity is best completed online.
| Read a Book Enjoy reading about dinosaurs? Here are a few great picks! |
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Click "Print Lesson" button to use your browser print Student Name: Alethea
Date Printed: Jan 11, 2015
Science 3
Unit 4: Ecosystems of the Past
Lesson 3: Animals of the Ancient Tundra
Duration: Approx. 60 min.
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Lesson 3: Animals of the Ancient Tundra
| | Cenozoic [see-nuh-ZOH-ihk] |
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| extinct | |
| No longer existing. A group of living things that has died out. Scientists have evidence that trilobytes became extinct a long time ago. |
| ice age | |
| A generally cool period of time on Earth when large areas of the planet are covered with glaciers. Many tundra animals that lived during the Ice Age are now extinct. |
| | Mesozoic [meh-zuh-ZOH-ihk] |
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| | Paleozoic [pay-lee-uh-ZOH-ihk] |
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| | Pleistocene [PLIYS-tuh-seen] |
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| Pleistocene epoch | |
| A period of time that scientists define as beginning one and a half million years ago and ending only 11,000 years ago--a relatively recent epoch in geologic time. Many kinds of plants and animals that lived during the Pleistocene epoch still exist today. |
| | Silurian [sih-LOUR-ee-uhn] |
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| | Triassic [triy-A-sihk] |
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| | tundra [TUN-druh] |
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This activity is best completed online.
| How do scientists think so many large animals survived the cold climate on our planet during the Ice Age? What happened to the woolly mammoth and the sabre-toothed cat? Where are all these big animals today? | | |||||||
| Lesson Overview
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This activity is best completed online.
| Optional Lesson Instructions This lesson is OPTIONAL. It is provided for students who seek enrichment or extra practice. You may skip this lesson. If you choose to skip this lesson, then go to the Plan or Lesson Lists page and mark this lesson “Skipped” in order to proceed to the next lesson in the course. |
This activity is best completed online.
| The Ancient Tundra Scientists think the long-tusked woolly mammoth roamed the ancient tundra a short 11,000 years ago. Sabre-toothed cats and cave bears also made this tundra their home. | |||||||||
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| During the Pleistocene epoch on our planet, scientists think huge sheets of ice called glaciers covered large areas of land in the north. The land near the glaciers was similar to today's tundra, but there were important differences, too. The presence of the glaciers made tundra summers quite cool. But in winter, the glaciers trapped some of the icy arctic air and kept it from moving south, so the tundra did not get quite as cold as it does today. The animals that lived near the edge of the glaciers could survive these steady cold temperatures. | |
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| Today's tundra is home to many living things, but long ago scientists think the tundra had a very different mix of plants and animals. Grasses and herbs grew in great abundance on the ancient tundra. This rich plant life provided food for many large herbivores--many more than can live in the tundra today because of the much colder winters today. Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and bison roamed the grasslands. These herbivores, in turn, were food for carnivores like sabre-toothed cats and hyenas. | |
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| What animals do scientists think lived on the ancient tundra? Click each picture to learn more | |
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| Scientists have found the remains of tundra animals still frozen in the ground in places like Siberia, in northern Asia. In the late 1990s, a team of scientists dug up a well-preserved mammoth while TV crews videotaped the event for a television show. To understand how these animals were adapted to the cold, scientists compare the mammoth to its modern cousin, the African elephant, which lives in a hot climate. | |
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| Many of the big animals that roamed the ancient southern tundra disappeared completely. Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears, and sabre-toothed cats are now extinct. Scientists continue to look for evidence of why some of these animals disappeared. Did our ancient relatives--early humans--hunt down and kill all the mammoths? Many scientists think a change in the climate was the main reason many animals disappeared. As the glaciers shrank and moved back to the poles, the tundra became colder in the winter and warmer in the summer. Fewer plants could survive the bitter cold of these new winters, and the animals that depended on plants could no longer live there. The carnivores that depended on the herbivores had to leave as well. | |
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This activity is best completed online.
| Changes in the Tundra How has the tundra changed? Take notes to compare animals still living in today's tundra with those that have completely disappeared. Follow the instructions in your student guide to complete this activity. |
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| Which animals that scientists think lived in the ancient tundra are similar to animals that live in the tundra today? Which animals are now extinct? Set up a new page in your Science notebook to list your answers. Do you remember how to set up your page to sort things into two groups? When you have finished, look at your answers. Which animals are alive today but do not live in the tundra? Put a star beside each animal whose modern cousins do not live in today's tundra. | |
This activity is best completed online.
| Ice Sampling How were scientists able to examine a mammoth that had been dead for thousands of years? Investigate using this preservation technique. Follow the instructions in your student guide to complete this optional activity. |
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Click "Print Lesson" button to use your browser print Student Name: Alethea
Date Printed: Jan 11, 2015
Science 3
Unit 4: Ecosystems of the Past
Lesson 4: Methods of Studying Ecosystems of the Past
Duration: Approx. 60 min.
Firefox cannot print Flash images. The on-screen images might print as blank spaces. If you need to print this lesson, try using Internet Explorer so that all the images print.
Lesson 4: Methods of Studying Ecosystems of the Past
| | dendrochronology [dehn-druh-kruh-NAH-luh-jee] |
| The study of tree rings to determine regional patterns of drought and climatic change. |
| evidence | |
| a thing, or information, used to form a conclusion or make a judgment |
This activity is best completed online.
| Scientists have many different methods of learning about the plants, animals, and even climates of long ago. Find out what clues nature provides, from valleys carved by glaciers to the paper-thin rings inside a tree trunk. | | |||||||
| Lesson Overview
|
This activity is best completed online.
| Optional Lesson Instructions This lesson is OPTIONAL. It is provided for students who seek enrichment or extra practice. You may skip this lesson. If you choose to skip this lesson, then go to the Plan or Lesson Lists page and mark this lesson “Skipped” in order to proceed to the next lesson in the course. |
This activity is best completed online.
| Evidence from Nature's Past What do cylinders of ancient ice, a chunk of coal, and tree rings have in common? They each tell the story of Earth’s past. Matching patterns in nature helps scientists begin to understand our planet’s history. |
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| How does a scientist digging up the ancient bones of an animal know what the world was like when that animal was alive? How can we begin to guess what life was like on our planet in times gone by? Scientists study nature for clues to the distant past. They examine silt from the bottom of oceans, lakes, and bogs. They read the stories that soil and rocks tell. They inspect fossils and even study old tree trunks. As scientists investigate these things, they begin to see patterns. They may find that a layer of ocean silt shows patterns that match those of material frozen inside a glacier. They may discover an insect and a plant both fossilized inside the same rock. Matching patterns in nature helps scientists begin to understand our planet's history. |
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| Scientists use many kinds of evidence to help them learn about ecosystems of the past. Rocks and rock patterns tell some of the story. What do you think these rocks can tell us about Earth's history? Click each photo to find out. | |
| Glaciers leave behind some of the best clues to the past. As glaciers move, they leave behind a mass of pebbles and boulders called till. Chunks of glaciers that fall into the ocean and float away may carry large boulders to other parts of the world. Studying the behavior of modern glaciers, scientists can guess what glaciers did in the past. Scientists drill holes into glaciers and take out thin cylinders of ice called cores. They then compare the glacier cores to cores taken from lake bottoms or sea bottoms, and try to match patterns of changes in chemistry. Scientists may even find plants and pollen trapped in the core layers. They can compare these organisms to those they find elsewhere. | |
| Scientists study other kinds of evidence to find patterns. When making investigations, they ask detailed questions, follow specific methods, and look for patterns in nature. | |
This activity is best completed online.
| Tree Rings, Time Keepers of the Past How old are the trees near your home? How can scientists tell how old a tree is? Learn how to use tree rings to find the age of a tree and what the growing conditions were like during its lifetime. The study of tree rings is called dendrochronology (den-druh-kruh-NAH-luh-gee). Follow the instructions in your student guide to complete this activity. |
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This activity is best completed online.
| Fossilized by Amber How can insects become part of a solid rock? Visit a site that lets you see how amber helps to preserve organisms from long ago. | |||||||||
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| Amber is the fossilized resin from ancient forests--it's not tree sap, as many people think. Resin is a substance that is released in the cells of the tree. Do you know what becomes captured inside the amber and eventually fossilizes? Visit the American Museum of Natural History's Amber: Window to the Past website to look at pieces of amber, and see through them to the ancient past! Do you recognize the organisms inside each piece? |
Click "Print Lesson" button to use your browser print Student Name: Alethea
Date Printed: Jan 11, 2015
Science 3
Unit 4: Ecosystems of the Past
Lesson 5: Ecosystems of the Past Unit Review
Duration: Approx. 60 min.
Firefox cannot print Flash images. The on-screen images might print as blank spaces. If you need to print this lesson, try using Internet Explorer so that all the images print.
This activity is best completed online.
| Review what you have learned about the ecosystems of the past and demonstrate your knowledge. | | |||
| Lesson Overview
|
This activity is best completed online.
| Optional Lesson Instructions This lesson is OPTIONAL. It is provided for students who seek enrichment or extra practice. You may skip this lesson. If you choose to skip this lesson, then go to the Plan or Lesson Lists page and mark this lesson “Skipped” in order to proceed to the next lesson in the course. |
This activity is best completed online.
| Ecosystems of the Past Unit Review Review what you have learned about life in the distant past. Complete the Ecosystems of the Past Extra Practice. |
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