Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies to understand content and feature usage to drive site improvements over time. To learn more, review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Extinction Events

Driving Question: How do extinction events change the complexity of life on Earth?

Asteroid impacts, volcanic eruptions, and disease outbreaks can have dramatic consequences for life in the biosphere. Explore the causes and impacts of extinction events.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Describe how Earth’s processes can lead to extinction events.
  2. Evaluate how extinction events change life on Earth.

Vocab Terms:

  • asteroid
  • biosphere
  • de-extinction
  • extinction
  • photosynthesis
STEP 1

Opener: Extinction Events

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page 2 of the Lesson 3.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

STEP 2

What Causes Extinction Events?

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page 3 of the Lesson 3.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Check out our Video Guide for suggestions on incorporating videos in the classroom.

What led to the extinction of the dinosaurs? How did life survive when over 90% of all species died 250 million years ago? Explore the causes of extinction events in this video and activity.

Extinction Events External link

Coming Soon!
There have been six mass extinction events in the almost 4 billion years that life has been on Earth. How did they happen?
STEP 3

Re-Creating Life

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page 4 of the Lesson 3.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Curious about how other teachers facilitate debates in their classroom. Check out this discussion External link in the OER Project Teacher Community.

STEP 4

Closer: Extinction Events

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page 5 of the Lesson 3.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Get an idea of how other teachers use Unit Notebooks by checking out this thread External link in the OER Project Teacher Community.

From the earliest life-forms deep in the ocean to the evolution—and sometimes extinction—of life on Earth, life has changed a great deal over the course of this unit. Take some time now to gather your thoughts.

Extension Materials
Checkmark Alert Banner
To learn more about bringing extinct species back to life, check out this clip from Episode 3 of the Unknowns podcast.
...

De-Extinction

There is still so much that we don’t know about life on Earth, but new scientific breakthroughs might just solve those mysteries.

“Unknowns” Podcast Episode 3 External link

What is a weirdodanta, thingodanta, or a bizarrodanta? There are some extinct animals that continue to be mysteries to us.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.