Advent of Complex Life

Are you a teacher who has used, or is using, our WebQuest in your class? If so, please contact E/PO Lead Phoebe Cohen - we want to hear from you!
 

Overview

This webquest covers many different disciplines and can be used to demonstrate how scientists often work across traditional subject areas to find answers to interesting questions. In order to find out how complex life emerged from single-celled organisms on Earth, we need to learn about the geology and climate of the Earth as it was over 500 million years, while understanding the biology of how life evolves. Only by understanding all these different subjects and how they interact can we effectively understand where complex life, including virtually all of the life we see around us today, came from. And in order for scientists to decide where and how to search for life elsewhere in our solar system and beyond, it is very useful to understand how it evolved here on Earth.

Evaluation

The evaluation can be flexible and creative, but the criteria should be clear to the students ahead of time. The theme of the activity can be modified as you desire (for example, by splitting the class into different constituent groups), and the evaluation criteria can also be modified to match the story. You can even ask other classes or teachers to act as panelists to help evaluate the presentations, mimicking the typical scientific approach of having scientist peer review each others work. You, or the panelists, can ask the presenters questions as if they were in a press conference or committee meeting, and you can use the responses as an additional grading metric. If there is disagreement amongst the groups in their recommendations, you can have a debate as part of the class discussion. You can use the provided evaluation rubric (65k PDF) to assist in your grading or as a basis for your own modified rubric.

We have also designed a simple short quiz that can be used to see how well the students have learned the material covered.  We recommend giving the quiz to half the students before the activity, and the other half after the activity to determine how much impact the activity had.  It may be useful to download (100k PDF) and print the quiz rather than having them take it online, otherwise you will need to contact us to obtain the results.

Please provide us with any other feedback so that we can improve our efforts.   There is also a form for your students to use if you want them to provide feedback directly or they are interested in doing so.

Standards

This webquest is designed to address the following National Science Education Standards:

National Science Education Standards (NSES) Checklist for Content Standards Grades 5-8
Science as Inquiry - CONTENT STANDARD A:

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understandings about scientific inquiry 

Life Science - CONTENT STANDARD C:

• Structure and function in living systems 
• Populations and ecosystems
• Diversity and adaptations of organisms

Earth and Space Science - CONTENT STANDARD D:

• Earth's history

History and Nature of Science -CONTENT STANDARD G:

• Science as a human endeavor
• Nature of science

National Science Education Standards (NSES) Checklist for Content Standards Grades 9-12

Science as Inquiry - CONTENT STANDARD A:

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understandings about scientific inquiry 

Life Science - CONTENT STANDARD C:

• Biological evolution
• Interdependence of organisms 
• Matter, energy, and organization in living systems 
• Behavior of organisms 

Earth and Space Science - CONTENT STANDARD D:

• Origin and evolution of the earth system

History and Nature of Science -CONTENT STANDARD G:

• Science as a human endeavor
• Nature of science

Process

This activity can be done in groups or individually. If you have a group of students, you can split the class up into groups of three or four and have each group create a report in different formats (e.g. video as presentation). You can also alter the activity so the groups are broken into different constituents: land-owners, scientists, politicians, and park service. The different groups will have different interests affected by the outcome of the debate, and each will present their findings and viewpoint to the teacher.

Some ideas to extend the activity

• Give each group a different position and ask them find evidence to defend this position. For example, one group could argue the fossils represent early animal life, while another group could argue the fossils represent fungi, while a third group could argue the fossils are an entirely different and extinct form of life. Since scientists argue about these topics, this debate represents the true scientific process and allows the students to dig for more evidence to support their particular case.
• Have a discussion about how understanding the process of studying fossils on Earth may help NASA decide how and where to look for life on other planets and moons. What sensors should spacecraft deploy? What should they be looking for and how?
• Encourage students to upload their work to Facebook, YouTube, TeacherTube and to share with their friends via other networks (such as Twitter and MySpace).  They should show off! TeacherTube is a good place for you to share it with other educators.  Let us know about their work and it may be highlighted on our website and the NASA Astrobiology website!