Evolution
On Tuesday 4th February, we were visited by Dr Helen, a palaeontologist from Palaeoquest, who visits schools to teach children all about ancient life forms, evolution and inheritance. During our first set of workshops, we focused on evolution. We learnt all about the formation of fossils and looked at the layering of sedimentary rock over time.
In groups, we examined real and replica fossil specimens from as far back as 520 million years ago to as ‘recently’ as 4 million years ago. We used tables to record our observations regarding which particular creatures were in existence over time.
Once we had collected the data, we evaluated our findings and compared the evidence of life forms over millions of years. We noticed that the further back in time you go, the less examples of fossils, and evidence of life, you can find. We also observed that 520 million years ago, all life was underwater.
Inheritance
In our second set of workshops, we looked at further evidence of evolution when we focused on inheritance. We looked at DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) replicas and used decoding resources to work out what the DNA contained instructions for. Using the decoding devices, we predicted which living organism would be created from the different DNA structures. Lastly, we compared the DNA to see which organisms had lots in common. We traced back to identify their common ancestors.
