Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
In 1981, scientists described a skull dug from rocks in Pakistan about 50 million years old. It came from a wolf-sized animal with four legs that lived on land. But its ear bone had a thick, heavy shape found in only one other group of animals: whales. Since then, more fossils have turned up in Pakistan, India and Egypt. Your team's job: put the fossils in order by age, like layers of rock, and find out what changed and what stayed the same.
Teams of three, with rotating jobs: Geologist (places the cards), Anatomist (reads the body clues), Recorder (fills in the table).
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
10 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Fossil cards
- Worksheet: Forelimb bones
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- Our rock column
- Three changes and one thing that stayed the same
- Shared bones
- Exit ticket
- Fossil cards
- Forelimb bones
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 4 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Orders the evidence
- Reads the pattern
- Explains shared bones
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “How do fossils show life has changed?” take?
50–60 min. Group size: teams of 3.
How much prep does it need?
10 minutes. Print one set of fossil cards per team and cut them apart; shuffle each set. Print the forelimb sheet and the student sheet for everyone.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): MS-LS4-1 (partly) and MS-LS4-2. It also matches England National Curriculum, Year 6; England National Curriculum, Key Stage 3 and Cambridge Lower Secondary Science (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My prediction”, “Our rock column”, “Three changes and one thing that stayed the same”, “Shared bones”, “Exit ticket”, “Fossil cards”, “Forelimb bones”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 4 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.