Mississippi Science E.8.7.4
The Standard
- E.8.7
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of geological evidence to analyze patterns in Earth’s major events, processes, and evolution in history.
Use research and evidence to document how evolution has been shaped both gradually and through mass extinction by Earth’s varying geological conditions (e.g., climate change, meteor impacts, and volcanic eruptions).
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Earth’s Structure and History
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use fossils, rock layers, and research on past climates, impacts, and eruptions to explain changes in life over time. They tell gradual changes apart from sudden losses of many species and back up their explanations with evidence.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can put fossils and geological clues in time order, then point to evidence for either gradual change or mass extinction. They can explain how conditions affected survival without claiming that one clue proves the cause.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think individual animals evolve because they need to adapt. They may treat a missing fossil as proof of extinction or assume an ash layer alone proves an eruption caused it. Some think a mass extinction killed every living thing.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: “Shell shapes shift across five rock layers. Above an ash layer, eight of ten species disappear. Identify both patterns and name evidence that would test whether an eruption caused the loss.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Stack paper rock layers with fossil cutouts and an ash strip, then mark slow shell changes and a sudden species loss.
Write a claim about whether an ash layer alone proves an eruption caused extinction, then name evidence needed to check it.
Sort dated fossil and event cards into gradual change or mass extinction, then defend each choice using the dates.
Check a natural history museum’s online extinction timeline against the fossil and rock evidence shown on the page.
Free download
Printable E.8.7.4 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to E.8.7.4, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetKeep exploring
Related Standards
- ESS.4.2
Research, assess, and communicate how Earth’s systems influence the distribution of life, including how various natural hazards and geologic events (e.g., volca...
- L.3.4.5
Construct scientific arguments using evidence from fossils of plants and animals that lived long ago to infer the characteristics of early environments (e.g., m...
- E.8.7.1
Use scientific evidence to create a timeline of Earth’s history that depicts relative dates from index fossil records and layers of rock (strata).
- ESS.3.7
Cite evidence and develop logical arguments to identify the cause-and-effect relationships of the evolutionary milestones (e.g., photosynthesis and the atmosphe...
Turn this exact standard into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.
Also for this standard:Make a WorksheetMake a QuizMake a Sub Lesson