This video briefly examines mass extinctions throughout Earth's history and what is pushing the world towards another mass extinction.
Students will learn about the Ice Age and Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, what percentage of life on Earth was lost during these extinction events, and how human activity is leading the planet towards another mass extinction.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Some students may enjoy this video's sense of humor.
This video ends with a positive call for action.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should understand how human greenhouse gas emissions contribute to climate change.
Some students may need the terms nutrients, algae, methane, asteroid, and irreversible defined before watching the video.
Students with anxiety may become distressed after watching the video. For these students, focus on the action message and solutions to slow climate change.
Differentiation
This video can help students formulate an argument for how human activity impacts the earth's systems.
For a language arts course, students can interpret the information in this video alongside other forms of media that deal with similar topics.
After watching the video, the teacher can lead a classroom discussion on what humans can do to stop climate change.
ELL students whose primary language is Spanish will benefit from the Spanish subtitles.
Scientist Notes
This video centers around a group of friends, along with the carbon ninja, discussing mass extinction events. This video is an engaging addition to a classroom discussing the current climate crisis and how action is needed now to stop another mass extinction event.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
MS-LS4-1 Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.