This video discusses extinction, how we measure extinction in the fossil record, what caused the other five mass extinction events, and the current rate of extinction.
The content can be applied to a number of science courses and has standards identified for AP Biology.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video helps students visualize and understand speciation, extinction, causes for mass extinction events, and what might happen in our future.
The animations are terrific.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the terms species, population, natural selection, and evolution.
Teachers and students must sign into their Google Classroom to record the interactive quiz score.
Differentiation
This video could be used as homework or an in-class activity to supplement a lecture.
Connections could be made with social studies classes when discussing ethics, the rights of other species to exist, and the rights of natural ecosystems that support all life on Earth.
There are a number of other videos and resources related to this topic on Khan Academy.
Scientist Notes
This video resource examines the 5 known mass extinction events in Earth's history and the hypotheses on what caused those events. Some scientists now propose that Earth is facing a 6th mass extinction event caused my anthropogenic climate change. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-2 Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
HS-LS4-2 Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increase in number, (2) the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction, (3) competition for limited resources, and (4) the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment.
HS-LS4-5 Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.
