Oklahoma Science EN.ESS2.7
The Standard
Engage in argument from evidence for how the simultaneous co-evolution of Earth’s systems and life on Earth led to periods of stability and change over geologic time.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science (2026)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use fossils and rocks to trace how living things changed the oceans and air over geologic time. They explain how those changes affected later life, using evidence to identify long stable periods and major shifts.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student places stromatolites, banded iron layers, and red beds in time order and uses them to support a claim. They explain how microbes made oxygen, why it stayed low for a long time, and how its later rise changed which organisms could thrive.
Common Misconceptions
- Some students assume oxygen built up in the air as soon as microbes began photosynthesis. Others think life only responds to Earth’s conditions and cannot change the oceans or air.
How to Assess It
- Give students a dated timeline showing stromatolites, banded iron layers, and red beds. Ask them to explain the long low-oxygen period, the later rise in oxygen, and one effect on life, citing two clues.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed stromatolite, banded iron, and red-bed cards; have them arrange the cards on a dated timeline and draw cause-and-effect arrows.
Ask students to explain, using two rock clues, why oxygen stayed low after photosynthesis began and how rising oxygen affected later life.
Play a claim-evidence match using stromatolite, banded iron, and red-bed cards; students discard the claim that oxygen rose as soon as microbes appeared.
Show a rusted nail beside a banded iron photo; students explain how oxygen reacts with iron and what the rock reveals about ancient oceans.
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Printable EN.ESS2.7 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- ES.ESS2.7
Engage in argument from evidence for how the simultaneous co-evolution of Earth's systems and life on Earth led to periods of stability and change over geologic...
- EN.ESS2.2
Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedback and interactions that cause changes to other Earth systems.
- ES.ESS2.2
Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedback and interactions that cause changes to other Earth systems.
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