OpenSciEd Unit 8.6 · Lesson 04 · 4.A
Look for: Some ancient penguins and all their descendan…
From Teacher Edition
Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
Building towards
4.A Develop an explanation based on preliminary evidence to illustrate that changes over time occur in the existence, diversity, and disappearance of different kinds of penguins throughout history.
What to look / listen for
What to look and listen for
Students should include the following ideas in their explanations:
- Some ancient penguins and all their descendants either died off and disappeared entirely or their descendants became a different species of penguin.
- At least one species of ancient penguins has descendents that are alive today. This species of penguins can be similar to one of the fossils that we have seen or not because maybe we haven’t discovered their fossils yet.
What to do
If students don’t have a version of ideas 1-3 above, you could include those statements as three separate claims on a single sheet of paper for students to evaluate and ask them whether they agree or disagree with each claim and why. If students don’t have any of the other possible ideas referenced in the key ideas callout, that is fine. You will look for a version of these ideas when students develop revised explanations in Lesson 6. If students don’t cite any evidence as described in idea 5, remind them to include at least one new line or type of evidence that they would need to either support or refute their ideas for at least one of their explanations.