Sixth graders discover how fossils and rock layers reveal Earth’s deep history — using the law of superposition and index fossils to read the story of life and time recorded in the rocks beneath our feet.
Students will be able to…
Rock layers are like the pages of an ancient book, and fossils are its illustrations. How do scientists read this rocky record to figure out what happened long before humans existed?
Project this and match each term to its description — tap a term, then tap what it means.
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Rock layers are like pages of a book — how do we read Earth’s history in them?
Students investigate.
Students explain.
Students elaborate.
Students conclude.
Aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (Middle School Earth & Space Science).
Construct an explanation using rock strata to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history.
Analyze the fossil record for evidence of change over time.
Interpret patterns in rock and fossil data.
Engaging in argument from evidence.
Preview the three formative checks. Tap “Sample answer” to see what mastery looks like — hide them before you print for students.
Have students order a set of rock layers using the law of superposition and index fossils to reconstruct the sequence of events. A printable fossils-and-time sheet is in the Science library.
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A quick self-check with instant feedback, drawn from this lesson’s key terms.
A print-and-go review sheet with a built-in answer key. Tap “Show answer key” to reveal answers, or print the clean version for students.