Claim and Evidence

Build an argument: a claim about the past, with fossils as evidence.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 26

Scientists make claims about the past, and they back them up with evidence: facts from fossils.
Claim: this desert was once under the sea. Evidence: fossil seashells are found in its rocks. Sea creatures can only live in the sea, so the claim makes sense!
Not every fact is evidence. The desert is hot today doesn't tell you anything about long ago.
Try it with a grown-up: press a leaf or a shell into clay to make a print, like the marks fossils leave. What can someone tell from your print?

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:

S3E2.a — Construct an argument from observations of fossils (authentic or reproductions) to communicate how they serve as evidence of past organisms and the environments in which they lived.