Following the Trail of Evidence

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Level
High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IB
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Description

In this activity, students identify and explain the evidence presented in the short film The Day the Mesozoic Died that led to the discovery that an asteroid struck Earth about 66 million years ago, causing a mass extinction.

As students watch the short film, they document the evidence leading to this important scientific discovery and what that evidence suggests. They follow the process of scientific inquiry, which consists of asking questions, making observations, formulating hypotheses, and gathering and evaluating evidence.

Student Learning Targets
  • Explain the relationship between the geological timescale and the layered pattern of exposed rocks in the landscape; specifically, that deeper layers are older than layers closer to Earth’s surface. 
  • Identify the evidence that the K-T boundary marks a mass extinction event that coincides with an asteroid striking Earth 66 million years ago. 
  • Employ the practices involved with scientific inquiry and research, including asking questions, making observations, formulating hypotheses, and gathering and evaluating evidence.
     
Details
Estimated Time
Two 50-minute class periods.
Key Terms

asteroid, Cretaceous, foraminifera, fossil, hypothesis, iridium, meteorite, sediment, spores, Tertiary

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.

Version History
Date Published
Updated
Curriculum Connections
NGSS (2013)

HS-LS4-5; SEP4

AP Biology (2015)

1.C.1, 4.B.3, 4.B.4; SP5, SP7

IB Biology (2016)

5.1

AP Environmental Science (2013)

II.C

IB Environmental Systems and Societies (2017)

3.2

Vision and Change (2009)

CC1, CC5; DP1, DP4

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