6B Home Learning Pack 3

Term 2, Week 3

Day 2 Highlighted activities are to be submitted to Miss Bourke.

Note – Larger versions of worksheets can be found further in the pack.

LESSON ACTIVITIES 10 minutes of reading

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension – Orange – Week 3a Read the article: Fish with fingers missing link in evolution of human hand

Complete the five quick quiz questions. Complete at least one of the other activities.

Modelled Reading

A Waltz for Matilda by Jackie French Listen to chapters 7 to 10.

Writing

Persuasive Writing Use the stimulus picture to help you write a persuasive text with the statement: It is important to always be on time.

Complete three OREO paragraphs using the template

Break Choose an activity from ‘Optional Activities for Break Times’

10 minutes of reading

Maths

Complete ‘Numeracy Ninja’ – Week 13, Session 2. You have 5 minutes to complete this worksheet.

T2 W2 – Subtraction

Science

Earth – Third Rock from the Sun Work your way through the slideshow.

Today’s lesson involves you conducting your own research and creating a slideshow containing information about the formation of the Earth. Offline students – I have included an information sheet in the pack. You can write an information report rather than create a slideshow if you do not have access to any technology.

Break Choose an activity from ‘Optional Activities for Break Times’ 10 minutes of reading

PDHPE

Managing Self – Managing Relationships Work your way through the slideshow for today’s PDHPE lesson.

Fish with fingers missing link in evolution of human hand

Harry Pettit and Reuters,March 23, 2020 7:00PMThe Sun Print Article

Artist’s impression of an ancient Elpistostege fish fossil found in Canada with fin bones like human hands. Picture: Katrina Kenny

ANIMALS

Reading level: Orange

A fish with fingers that lurked in lagoons 380 millions years ago could teach us about the origins of the human hand.

The 1.6m-long, shark-like Elpistostege watsoni was a slippery predator that lived in what is now eastern Canada. Australian and Canadian scientists studying a fossil of the fish say its fin has similarities with the human hand, with the skeleton featuring an arm, a forearm and finger -like parts.

Researchers say their findings reveal “extraordinary new information” about how the human hand evolved.

Professor John Long, of Flinders University, South Australia, said: “This is the first time that we have unequivocally* discovered fingers locked in a fin with fin-rays in any known fish.

“The articulating* digits in the fin are like the finger bones found in the hands of most animals.

“This finding pushes back the origin of digits in vertebrates to the fish level, and tells us that the patterning for the vertebrate hand was first developed deep in evolution, just before fishes left the water.”

Evidence of Elpistostege was first found in 1938 in the cliffs of Miguasha National Park in Quebec, Canada. It was only in 2010 a complete specimen was discovered.

Flinders University’s Professor John Long with an ancient Elpistostege fish fossil found in Canada. Picture: supplied

The unique predator is believed to have lived in a shallow, tropical marine habitat with brackish* water in the Quebec region during the Middle and Upper Devonian period, about 393-359 million years ago.

Researchers believe fish such as Elpistostege are “transitional fossils” which could help understand how vertebrates, or backboned animals, were able to transition from water to land. Palaeontologists* from Australia and Canada used high-energy CT scans to study the pectoral* fin, used to control the direction of movement.

The fin skeleton revealed the presence of an arm (humerus), a forearm (radius and ulna), a wrist (rows of carpus) and fingers (phalanges organised in digits).

Lead author, palaeontologist Dr Richard Cloutier, of the University of Quebec, Canada said humans come from a long line of evolution and “that every part of our body, like our fingers, has a long evolutionary history”.

“This is true for Homo sapiens but it is also true for all living organisms,” Dr Cloutier added.

This marks the first time such traits have been found in a fish rather than in the earliest amphibians – the first land vertebrates – that later evolved from fish with sturdy fins like Elpistostege. It had two explicit* digits and three other apparent* digits.

“The origin of digits relates to developing the capability for the fish to support its weight in shallow water or for short trips out on land.”

He said the increased number of small bones in the fin created more flexibility to spread the fish’s weight out on dry land when not supported by the buoyancy of water.

The research was published in the journal Nature.

Human hands are incredibly complex. The many small bones help us move the fingers independently of the others and this complex design has a long evolutionary history.

This article was first published on The Sun and is republished with permission.

MEET THE FISH WITH FINGERS Elpistostege was mostly aquatic with a crocodile-like body shape and flat triangular head, eyes on the top the skull and many teeth around the jaws and in the palate*. Its slender body was covered in thick scales.

It likely was the top predator in its habitat during the Devonian Period.

It is unclear whether it occasionally emerged onto land, but the structure of its fins would have enabled it to do so, according to Prof Long.

Its fingers were contained within the fin; the skin was not separated around them.

The digits of the 30,000-plus living species of tetrapods — four-limbed animals, including humans — all share the same basic pattern found in Elpistostege.

Four-limbed animals, including humans, all share the same basic pattern found in Elpistostege. Picture: iStock

GLOSSARY • unequivocally: without doubt • articulated: able to move independently of the things around it • brackish: a bit salty • palaeontologists: experts in fossils • pectoral: chest • explicit: stated clearly without room doubt • apparent: looks to be that way, but not certain • palate: roof of the mouth

QUICK QUIZ 1. What is similar about the fish and modern humans?

2. When did this live and where?

3. What does a palaeontologist do?

4. What were small bones useful for?

5. What is a tetrapod?

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 1. Summarise the Information There is a lot of information in this article. Interesting detail has been added to give further information for those that want to know more. Your job is to read through the article and determine what are the most important pieces of information and what are the ‘extra’ details. Note down or highlight the most important information and then rewrite this into a succinct paragraph. Make sure you use correct punctuation.

Curriculum Links: English, Science

2. Extension An artist’s impression When we read, we create an image inside our head of what we are reading about. Try not to look at the picture in the article. (If you have already seen it that is OK) Using only the explanation in the article, draw an ‘artists impression’ of what you think the Elpistostege watsoni would have looked like. Include the typical environment you might have expected to find one. How does your picture compare to the one used in the article? Label the significant physical traits that palaeontologists believe the Elpistostege watsoni had.

Curriculum Links: English, The Arts – Visual Arts, Science

Science: How was Earth formed?

More than 4,500,000,000 years ago – before even the dinosaurs existed, before even the Earth existed – there was space.

And in one part of space, there was a huge collection of stars mixed in with massive clouds of gas and dust, that today we call the Milky Way galaxy.

The Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. This is Galaxy NGC 4414, a spiral galaxy just like our own Milky Way. NASA, CC BY

In a small corner of that huge galaxy, in an area that would later become our solar system, there was a big cloud of gas that had been swirling around since the Big Bang. There were also some dusty remains of an old star that had exploded long ago. The gas and dust were floating, swirling and spinning past each other - but they were all quite far apart. But then… a nearby star exploded, in what we call a supernova. This supernova sent a shockwave of light and energy rippling across space, pushing some of the gas and dust towards each other. This gas and dust soon became a ball, which started to get bigger and bigger because of gravity. Gravity makes everything in the universe move towards everything else - and when things get really big (like, planet-size big), they start to pull all nearby things towards it.

The Eagle Nebula, filled with gas and dust, and currently the birthplace of lots of new stars. Hubble Telescope/NASA, CC BY

As the ball of gas and dust got bigger, the gas and dust started to crush in on itself until something called a “nuclear reaction” happened right in the middle of the ball. A nuclear reaction is super powerful, and this particular one turned our Sun into a brilliantly shining star, throwing light across the rest of the gas and dust that was still spinning around it.

Gas and dust started clumping together to form planets Some of those other swirling, twirling chunks of gas and dust (that hadn’t been sucked into the Sun) were bumping and clumping into each other. Soon, those clumps got big enough that gravity started pulling in all the other gas and dust around it, all while still going round and round the giant shining Sun. Some of these twirling bits clumped together to make our Earth. Others clumped together to make Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – and all of their moons too. All these baby planets swirled and spun, and pulled in all the nearby matter. They squished together to become super-tight big giant hot balls of spinning stuff. Our own Earth was getting hit by rocks that were falling towards it. It kept getting bigger and hotter until it was a giant ball of melted rock. Then, a really huge rock smashed into Earth and made it even bigger. And a little bit of that

rock flew off and floated into space to make the Moon.

Early on, a big bit of rock hit Earth. And a little bit of it flew off and floated into space to make the Moon. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/T. PYLE, CC BY

So the Earth was just out there floating in space, near the Sun. But it looked totally different to the Earth we live on today. There were volcanoes all over the place, with hot lava and gas everywhere.

An artist’s impression of a hot planet. NASA/JPL-Caltech, CC BY

Cooling down But slowly over many years, Earth started to cool down. Some rocks full of ice and gas hit it and melted to make the sea. This is continuing today - every year more than three tonnes of space rocks hit the Earth. But slowly, over many years, the top layer of the Earth was cool enough to harden. This is the ground we walk on today. We call it the Earth’s crust, like a crust of bread. Deep down underground, the Earth is still full of melted hot rock. And gradually, over a long time, plants started to grow, bugs started to live and life on Earth began to form (which is a whole story on its own). Earth is really ancient, and humans have only been around for a tiny part of that. All the buildings and the cars and the restaurants, and the phones and even everything that’s inside of you… it all started with an exploding star, billions of years ago.