The History of Life
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Chapter 19 focuses on the History of Life on Earth. We will examine how scientists study the Earth's ancient history, what that history is, and the driving forces (physical and biological) which have resulted in the world we see today. We will also consider the origins of life, and what we are (and are not) able to know about the very first living things which would have inhabited the Earth 3.8 billion years ago.
The link below takes you to a Youtube page called Eons - published by PBS. It has dozens of short video segments about a wide range of topics which relate to this chapter. The videos are short, informative and interesting. It is a great resource for all kinds of topics in this chapter. Check it out. |
Section ONe
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Section Two
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Section Three
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Are we the 6th mass extinctionThere have been 5 mass extinctions over the last 500 million years. Each extinction event resulted in the loss of over 50% of all the species that lived on Earth at that time. The last one of these events occurred approximately 66 million years ago and resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. These events seem like distant events that are relegated to far past. However, many scientists are beginning to think we are in the midst of a 6th mass extinction. A mass extinction which could result in over 50% of all current species going extinct. This event is not the result of a meteor........ it may be the result of humans.
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Group Project - Scaled TimeLineSometimes there are concepts which are so immense that they are almost incomprehensible. "Time" is one of those concepts. What exactly does it mean to say "4.5 BILLION years"? Just how long is that? And, just exactly where to we (humans) fit in this staggeringly long history? In this assignment, you will work in groups to create a scaled timeline to help you understand just exactly what it is we are talking about in this chapter.
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Test Preparation:
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Chapter Review |
Multiple Choice (20-25)
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Do all Multiple Choice plus: 6,9,11,15,16,17,18,19,20,25,27,28
30,31,32,33,34,35. |