The Fossils pcMEL

Below are links to resources that will help students use the Fossils pcMEL to make claims and justify the connections between fossil evidence of past climates and current scientific models that present Earth's climate as dynamic and ever-changing.

Overview

This article provides an introduction to the Fossils build-a-MEL (baMEL). It is useful even if you are using the Fossils pcMEL with your students. The primary difference between the pcMEL and the baMEL is that with the pcMEL students are given two models and four lines of evidence in a preconstructed diagram where as with the baMEL students choose two models from three and select four lines of evidence from eight to create their own MEL diagram.

Climate Changes of the Past (Acrobat (PDF) 324kB Feb8 21)

Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations

HS-LS4-6: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

• Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.

HS-ESS2-7: Earth's Systems

• Construct an argument based on evidence about the simultaneous coevolution of Earth's systems and life on Earth.

The Models

Model A: Many organisms' fossils are missing from the fossil record. We cannot make any conclusions about Earth's past environments from fossils.
Model B: Fossils provide evidence for Earth's changing surface. Understanding past life forms tells us about past environments.

Student Handouts

• Fossils MEL Model Plausibility Ratings (Acrobat (PDF) 76kB Jul2 24)
• Fossils MEL – Diagram (Acrobat (PDF) 116kB Jul2 24)
• Explanation Task (Acrobat (PDF) 52kB May6 24)

Lines of Evidence

Evidence #1: Trilobites were small animals that lived at the bottom of the ocean. They fed on organic matter in sediment on the ocean floor. Because trilobite fossils are so abundant and well preserved in the limestone and shale rock of Ohio, they were officially named the state fossil.
Evidence #2: Leaf fossils from Wyoming found in a deep rock layer show a climate that is cooler than that of the fossils found above it.
Evidence #3: The Svalbard forest in Arctic Norway is filled with fossils of tropical trees, called Lycopsid. These trees lived hundreds of millions of years ago.
Evidence #4: Many large geographic areas, like the Blue Ridge and Piedmont regions in Georgia, are made up of metamorphic and igneous rock. Fossils are not usually found in these types of rock.

Student Handouts

• Fossils pcMEL - Evidence Texts Color (Acrobat (PDF) 1.7MB Jul6 24)
• Fossils pcMEL - Evidence Texts BW (Acrobat (PDF) 684kB Jul6 24)

Lateral Reading (LR) Resources

What does it mean for a source to be credible? Why should we investigate whether a source is credible before we read it? How do we decide whether online sources are credible? Use lateral reading to find out.

Use lateral reading to evaluate the credibility of two sources related to fossils.

This LR Activity connects to Evidence #3 above: The Svalbard forest in Arctic Norway is filled with fossils of tropical trees, called Lycopsid. These trees lived hundreds of millions of years ago.

Use the LR Guiding Questions to evaluate the credibility of each source.

• LR Guiding Questions (Acrobat (PDF) 28kB Jun8 23)
• Source #1: Fossilized Tropical Forests Found In Arctic
  Show me information about the source
  Hide
  More credible. Popular Science (also known as PopSci) is a U.S. popular science website that covers science and technology topics geared toward a broad, general audience.
• Source #2: Fossilised FOREST found in Norway: 380-million-year-old trees were so large and leafy they 'triggered climate change and helped animals to flourish'
  Show me information about the source
  Hide
  Less credible. The Daily Mail is a British tabloid. It is widely read in Britain, but according to Wikipedia, it has "been criticized for its unreliability, its printing of sensationalist and inaccurate scare stories about science and medical research, and for instances of plagiarism and copyright infringement."

Lateral Reading Lesson Materials

Other Resources

This Plausibility Ranking Task (PRT), which may be completed prior to using any MELs, helps students to understand the role of evidence in supporting or refuting models.

• Plausibility Ranking Task (Acrobat (PDF) 76kB May6 24)

Virtual MEL

The Google Drive folder below contains MEL resource documents in the Google formats. In order to maximize the flexibility of our activities, the MEL Project Team wanted to make more resources compatible with virtual settings. We have made our MEL scaffolds available in Google formats, so that they can be copied, modified, and uploaded more easily on a variety of platforms and devices. Please note that to access all the materials for each MEL scaffold, you will need a Google account. View the README file first.

• README First Instructions & FAQ (Acrobat (PDF) 70kB May24 21)
• Virtual Fossils MEL Resource Documents in Google Drive

Digital Resources

This classroom resource, Prehistoric Climate Change and Why it Matters, from the Smithsonian Institute includes background information and an activity that engages students in leaf margin analysis.

The geology, fossils, and human stories of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado are part of a common geologic heritage. Shadows of the Past, a video from the National Park service, shows how the fossil beds hold clues of unexpected environments and life that existed there during the late Eocene.

In Conservation paleobiology: Eyeing the past to restore today's ecosystems researchers use historic remnants like antlers, shells, teeth and pollen to learn how natural communities once worked. The clues serve as guides for restoration.

In the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History paleobiologists study fossil plants. What Fossil Plants Reveal About Climate Change describes how fossil plants help researchers to reconstruct Earth's past climate and inform research on modern climate change.

Every year the National Park Service celebrates National Fossil Day with fossil-related events and activities across the country in parks, classrooms, and online. Check out how you and your students can get involved.

The Digital Atlas of Ancient Life virtual collection hosts interactive 3D models of fossil specimens from the collections of the Paleontological Research Institution. The digital specimens can be rotated and annotated. All of the models have Creative Commons 0 (CC0) licensing and may be freely viewed, downloaded, 3D printed, and otherwise used as desired for noncommercial use.