Major Geological Events in Earth's History

Introduction

You will be asked to explore ONE of the biological changes that happened because of a major geologic event that separates the four eras; precambrian, paleozoic, mesozoic, and cenozoic. The three events are the Cambrian Explosion (570-500 mya), Permian-Triassic Extinction (248 mya), and the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction (63 mya).

You will need to answer four questions with the details described in the task by constructing an Explain Everything presentation. The four questions are:

1. What was life like before and after the event?

2. What geologic event or environmental change occurred to cause a biological change?

3. What evidence of a geologic event or changing environment exists?

4. How did the event or changing environment effect future life on Earth?

Task

Please use pictures and thorough descriptions when answering each of the questions.

1. What was life like before and after the event?

Show pictures of organisms that existed before and after the event.
Describe what is different about the organisms that existed before and after

2. What geologic event or environmental change occurred to cause a biological change?

Describe the physical changes that occurred during the event to change Earth. This could relate to changes in temperature, sea level, oxygen level, methane release, or other environmental factors.

3. What evidence of a geologic event or changing environment exists?

How do we use relative and radioactive dating to determine when this event happened?
How do fossils play a role in determining the organisms present before and after the event?

Bonus: what organisms are less likely to be found in the fossil record?

4. How did the event or changing environment effect future life on Earth?

Describe what life forms vanished from the Earth forever and which life forms still exist due to this event.

Process

1. Open Explain Everything and make a six-slide presentation.

Write the title of your presentation including your event on the first slide.
Write the question you are answering at the top of the next four slides.
Write bibliography at the top of the sixth page.

2. Begin your search for information at this website:

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/prehist…

Click through the tutorial and explore the information presented within a few of the topics in the timeline.

This link is helpful if you are working on one of the mass extinctions: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/mass-ex…

This link is helpful if you are working on the Cambrian Explosion:http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/cambria…

3. Begin answering the questions in your Explain Everything presentation

4. Look for additional sources of information on your own. You must copy and paste the URL from the websites that you use (including the Nat Geo website above) into your bibliography page.

Evaluation

Students' Explain Everything presentations will be graded based upon this rubric with a maximum score of 18 points.

Topic	0	1	2	3
Life Before and After	No pictures or description present	Pictures from before or after without description	Contains descriptions of life in general with pictures from before or after	Contains detailed descriptions of organisms with pictures from before and after
Cause of Environmental Change	No physical changes mentioned	One or more physical change mentioned, but it is not accurate	One or two physical changes mentioned accurately	Three or more physical changes mentioned accurately
Evidence for Environmental Change	No mention of dating or fossils	Mentions fossil evidence briefly without any other evidence	Describes fossil evidence in detail, but does not describe other pieces of evidence (crater, sediment deposits, current research related to topic--bacterial, greenhouse gasses, or temperature)	Describes fossil evidence in detail in addition to other evidence of physical changes such as: crater, sediment deposits, current research related to topic--bacterial, greenhouse gasses, or temperature
Effect on Future Life	No mention of how organisms were changed during the time period	Describes that organisms were likely to change, but does not describe how or why.	Describes which organisms were more likely to die off or speciate, but not the implication on future life.	Describes which organisms were more likely to die off or speciate, and what this implied for future life on Earth.
Organization	Contains no bullet points and does not accurately label all slides	Contains few bullet points and does not have six accurately labeled slides	Contains few bullet points and has six accurately labeled slides	Contains bullet points with summaries and has six accurately labeled slides