Life Science · California Grade 8

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.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on finding patterns of changes in the level of complexity of anatomical structures in organisms and the chronological order of fossil appearance in the rock layers.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include the names of individual species or geological eras in the fossil record.

Source: California Department of Education, NGSS Preferred Integrated Course Model, Grade 8 (accessed 2026-10-18)

Chapters

Chapter 8: Investigating Rock Stratasupports

A Grade 8 PE in California's sequence. The fossil-succession section gives students the idea that fossils appear in one chronological order in the rock record and that this order is the same everywhere, which is background for analyzing patterns in the fossil record later. This chapter does not ask students to analyze fossil-record data on diversity or extinction, so the role is supports.

Chapter 9: Reconstructing Earth's Historysupports

A California Grade 8 performance expectation; this lesson supplies background for it. Lab 3 and W5 have students count fossil groups layer by layer in a simulated sequence and find where the biggest losses fall, which is the pattern-finding half of the PE. Names of species and eras are not assessed, in keeping with its assessment boundary.

Worksheets (8)

Chapter	Worksheet	Role	How it connects
Ch. 8	W6 · Two Road Cuts, One Story? A Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Case Claim, evidence, reasoning	supports	MS-LS4-1 is a Grade 8 PE about patterns in the fossil record. The idea that species appear in a fixed order in rock layers is used here as a tool, not assessed; no species or era names are required.
Ch. 9	W2 · Nested Boxes and Big Numbers: The Language of Deep Time Vocabulary in action	supports	MS-LS4-1 is a California Grade 8 performance expectation on patterns in the fossil record. The term mass extinction, and the idea that fossils disappearing from strata mark a boundary, is used here only as vocabulary.
Ch. 9	W4 · Two Cliffs and an Ash Band: Build One Column of Time Diagrams and models	supports	MS-LS4-1 is a California Grade 8 performance expectation. The drop from thirty kinds of fossils to eleven across one line is a fossil-record pattern students interpret without naming any species or era.
Ch. 9	W5 · Fossils Across a Line, and 4.54 Billion Years on a Meter Stick Data and graphing	practice	MS-LS4-1 is a California Grade 8 performance expectation. Part A is a direct exercise in analyzing data for a pattern of extinction and recovery in the fossil record, using counts of 'kinds' rather than species names, within the assessment boundary.
Ch. 9	W6 · Which Plan Divides the Cliff the Way Geologists Divide Time? Claim, evidence, reasoning	supports	MS-LS4-1 is a California Grade 8 performance expectation. The fossil-count drops in the record are the pattern students cite; no species or era names are involved.
Ch. 9	W7 · Fix Dario's Exhibit: Finding the Errors in a Timeline of Earth Error analysis	supports	MS-LS4-1 is a California Grade 8 performance expectation. Two of Dario's errors concern the order of appearance of life forms in the fossil record (oxygen-producing microbes before animals; dinosaurs long before humans), which students correct using order, not species names.
Ch. 9	W8 · Evidence Jigsaw: Twelve Clues to Earth's Past Collaborative investigation	supports	MS-LS4-1 is a California Grade 8 performance expectation. Several cards describe fossils appearing or disappearing in order; students use the order, not species names.
Ch. 9	W10 · Deep Time Check: Retrieval Practice and Synthesis Retrieval and mastery check	supports	MS-LS4-1 is a California Grade 8 performance expectation. Item q6 uses the order of appearance in the fossil record without species or era names.

Labs (1)

Chapter	Lab	Role	How it connects
Ch. 9	Lab 3 · The Boundary Committee: Deciding Where Deep Time Gets Divided Data-driven decision	practice	A California Grade 8 performance expectation; here students practice its data-analysis half by tallying fossil groups layer by layer, computing losses, and describing the pattern of disappearances and new appearances through the sequence. Group names are invented, so no species or era names are learned or assessed.