Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson. Begin by displaying slides 3–4 to read aloud the essential question and lesson objectives.

Go to slide 5 and share the guidelines for the game Telephone with students.

Pull the first student aside, preferably in a space like the hallway where your conversation can be had at a normal level without being overheard. Tell the student the phrase, “The dodo bird was a flightless bird that laid one egg until humans arrived.” Have the student return to their spot in the classroom.

Once you and the student return to the classroom, have the first student whisper the same phrase to the student next to them. Remind them that they may only say the phrase once.

Have that student pass the same message on to the next student in line. Have them continue this process until the message reaches the last student in the chain.

Have the last student announce the phrase they heard to the whole class.

Share with students what the original phrase was. Invite students to discuss how the phrase they heard differed from original. Encourage them to consider how this change was a result of the phrase being passed between students. Ask the following questions to the group:

• What does each person in the chain represent?

• What does the phrase represent?

• What does the teacher represent?

• What happened to the phrase by the time it reached the last person in the circle?

• What would be the term for that change?

• What do you think caused that change?

Share with students that the dodo bird was a real bird that existed on Mauritius Island. The extinction of the dodo bird illustrates an evolutionary process. Share with students that the dodo bird became extinct for two reasons: (1) it was overhunted by humans, which resulted in a dramatic change in their environment, and (2) their reproduction process was very slow. Dodos were only able to produce one offspring, or one egg, at a time, which limited the number of birds on the island at any one time. They rapidly became extinct when Portuguese sailors hunted them for food and destroyed their habitats.

Introduce the concept that a shift in an organism’s DNA and overall features is often a change that is enforced by their environment. This process is called evolution. The extinction of the dodo bird is an example of how the environment can significantly affect an organism or an entire species.

Address general misconceptions of the word evolution. This term is often misunderstood, and this lesson does not discuss the word’s use in the context of how life begins. This lesson instead focuses on evolution in the context of change over time. Throughout this lesson, students will learn that evolution is a very slow process, and the evidence that scientists have studied for many decades confirms that, while change in living species is slow, it is occurring and can be traced.

Pass out one copy of the attached Addie’s Story Video Questions handout to each student. Go to slide 6 and introduce the PBS video, Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria. Then, begin the video and have students answer the questions on the handout as they follow along.

After the conclusion of the video, pass out the attached Addie’s Story S-I-T Activity handout. Go to slide 7 and have students complete the handout using the S-I-T (Surprising, Interesting, Troubling) instructional strategy. Have students individually identify one surprising fact or idea, one interesting fact or idea, and one troubling fact or idea from the video. Allow approximately 10–15 minutes for students to add their initial responses.

Display slide 8 and introduce the Chain Notes instructional strategy. Begin the two-minute timer on the slide and have students pass their papers clockwise. When each student gets a new paper, have them add to their group member’s list. Repeat this process until each paper gets back to its original writer.

Display slide 9 and have groups work together to draft a summary of the main ideas regarding evolution they gleaned from the video. Select one student from each group to share their group’s summary with the whole class.