Making Sense of Evolution

Background and Rationale

In Chicago, IL, students can visit the Field Museum and see evidence of Earth’s history with their own eyes. They can see the spectacular T. rex, Sue and hundreds of palm sized trilobites. In the Evolving Earth exhibit, students can walk through history, one era at a time, witnessing explosions in life forms as well as mass extinctions. Despite having such rich resources, such as the Field Museum, it can be difficult for students to wrap their minds around the immensity and scale of Earth’s history and the timelines on which evolution occurs. Additionally, outside of the occasional class trip, most students do not have the resources to visit exhibits like Evolving Earth. Chicago Public Schools had almost 397,000 students enrolled in the 2014-2015 school year. Of those students, the overwhelming majority are African American (39.3%) and Hispanic (45.6%). Over 86% of students attending CPS schools are considered “Economically Disadvantaged” and just over 16% are designated as ELL.³

Students in CPS are required to learn about the concepts of evolution and Earth’s history throughout the course of their studies. Middle school science is most often taught in three separate strands: physical science, life science, and Earth science. Although some schools teach integrated science in middle school, it is more common that these strands are taught in apparent exclusivity of each other. At my school, where I teach 8^th grade science, students do not learn geologic history and evolution within the same school year. At best, evolution receives a brief paragraph during the lesson on fossilization and how fossils are used to study Earth’s past. Students learn about Earth’s past more through memorization of events and through basic geologic laws rather than through an integrated study on how life forms changed in response to the selective pressures present at the time. Understanding these selective pressures can paint a much more robust picture of Earth’s history. Additionally, people learn better when explicit connections are made between concepts they are already familiar with (studying evolution in 7^th grade) and novel concepts (Earth’s history).

Before beginning this unit, students at Marquette School of Excellence would have learned some key information about geology that would help in having a deeper understanding of this unit. Although it is not necessarily required to complete this unit, students may benefit from learning basic geologic laws and mechanisms of change, such as how sedimentary rock layers form and can be distorted over time and the concept of uniformitarianism (which I will briefly cover in this unit).