OpenSciEd Unit 8.6 · Lesson 05 · 5.A
Look for: The structures of some living things today lo…
From Teacher Edition
Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
Building towards
5.A.1 Analyze and interpret data from images to identify patterns of similarities and differences in modern organisms and the fossil record and use the patterns to reconstruct relationships between fossil (ancient) and extant (modern) organisms.
What to look / listen for
What to look and listen for
Circulate as students work to formatively assess students’ identification and use of patterns to sort ancient and modern organisms based on their body structures. Different groups may have focused on different body structures and noticed different patterns that led to different organizations. Listen for these general ideas:
- The structures of some living things today look similar to but not exactly like the most-similar-looking fossils we can find.
- Sometimes, but not always, there are noticeable structural differences.
- Sometimes, but not always, there are differences in overall size of the organism.
Look for students to sort and arrange their specific organism data cards based on the following body structures and variations:
horseshoe crabs
shape of shell, position of eyes, number of spines
horses
number and size of toes, shape and size of teeth
whales
presence or size of hind limbs, presence or absence of teeth, short or long skull, position of blow hole on skull
What to do
If students are struggling to identify patterns among the organisms, help them focus specifically on the structural body structures they’ve identified as important. Ask them to verbally explain or to show you visually what is similar and what is different among the organisms. Prompt them to group together things they’d describe as mostly similar and divide into separate groupings those things they’d describe as mostly different.
You may also choose to assess student understanding when students use stickers to record in their science notebooks the patterns they found after the gallery walk and discussion in the next step.