Department of Education

Region III
DIVISION OF PAMPANGA

Earth and Life Science

“Origin of De Vita”
The Origin of Life

Prepared by: Rommer S. Lopez RN, LPT

Del Carmen National High School
Learning Competency: Explain the evolving concept of life based on emerging pieces
of evidence.

Objectives:
a. Discuss the origin of life.
b. Explain how the first cell evolved.

Pre-test

Read and analyze each statement. Write TRUE if the statement is correct. Otherwise, write
FALSE if the statement is incorrect.

1. The Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old.

2. Fossils were used as evidence to finds answers about the origin of life.

3. New life can only come from another living organism.

4. Some scientist believes that our ancestors came from other planets.

5. Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen are the basic chemicals of life.

6. Humans share 50% of its DNA with a banana.

7. Dinosaurs were the first creatures to inhabit the earth.

8. The building blocks of DNA and RNA are called nucleotides.

9. It is possible that humans evolved from bacteria.

10. It is possible for life to be formed from basic chemicals.

11. RNA can replicate itself.

12. Plants were the first photosynthetic organisms on earth.

13. There are no evidences to prove that life was created by God.

14. The answer to the origin of life has not been discovered yet.

15. Chickens existed first before chicken eggs.

Guide Card
 How did life begin? For much of human intellect, almost everyone believed some version
of "the gods did it". Any other explanation than that was unacceptable.

That may no longer be true. Over the last century, a few scientists have tried to figure out
how the first life might have started.

This is the story of our quest to discover our ultimate origin. It is a story of obsession,
struggle, and brilliant creativity, which encompasses some of the greatest discoveries of modern
science. The efforts to understand life's beginnings has sent men and women to the furthest
corners of our planet.

This is the story of the birth of life on Earth.

Photo’pe (Photo Recipe)

Analyze each set of photos as recipes to identify the product.

Example:

1. 2.
 3. 4.

Review:
From where did the first life form emerge? Nowadays, several theories were proposed
that seems to answer how life begun on earth. From point of view of religion to science’s own
explanation. But which one should we believe?

Simple chemicals like Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen are the chemicals that
make up living things. But how do these chemicals mix up to build the complex molecules of
life? Probably the answer to that is because although we may know the ingredients, science have
yet to discover the perfect recipe.

Since from the previous module we learned the properties of life, just like the Photo’pe
activity above. We will uncover how life could have started from the ingredients we know. We
now have another quest, to learn about the different proposed recipe for the creation of the first
forms of life.

Together, let us learn about “Origin of De Vita” (The Origin of Life).

ACTIVITY CARD #1: Geologic Evidence
Discover the first key evidence on how life started by decoding the term below. Read the
paragraph below to get the answer.

The earliest evidence of life on Earth comes from fossils discovered in Western Australia
that date back to about 3.5 billion years ago. These fossils are of structures known
as stromatolites, which are formed by the growth of layers of single-celled microbes, such as
cyanobacteria.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 Microfossils are fossils that contain the remains of tiny plants and animals.
 Prokaryotes are organisms that do not have a nucleus and are known to be the earliest
forms of life. They started to make their own food by utilizing the energy from the sun
and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
 The cyanobacteria are the first photosynthetic organisms to form. The process of
photosynthesis produced more oxygen that changed the Earth’s early atmosphere. This
change in the atmosphere allowed oxygen-breathing organisms to exist.
 Eukaryotic organisms that evolved from prokaryotes are larger than bacteria and have
internal membranes and thicker wall. These findings marked the beginning of
multicellular organisms on Earth.
 Biogenesis is the belief that life originates from preexisting life.

ACTIVITY CARD #2: Chemical Evidence

Discover the second key evidence on how life started by decoding the term below. Read the
paragraph below to get the answer.
 In the 1920s, Russian scientist Aleksander Oparin and English scientist J. B. S. Haldane
both separately proposed what's now called the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis: that life on Earth
could have arisen step-by-step from non-living matter through a process of “gradual chemical
evolution.” They suggested that:
Simple inorganic molecules could have reacted (with energy from lightning or the sun) to form
building blocks like amino acids and nucleotides, which could have accumulated in the oceans,
making a "primordial soup".

In 1953, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey did an experiment to test Oparin and Haldane’s
ideas. They found that organic molecules could be spontaneously by building a closed system
containing a heated pool of water and a mixture of gases that were thought to be abundant in the
atmosphere of early earth. Miller and Urey sent sparks of electricity to simulate the lightning that
might have provided energy for chemical reactions. Miller and Urey found that various types of
amino acids, sugars, lipids and other organic molecules had formed. Large, complex molecules
like DNA and protein were missing, but the Miller-Urey experiment showed that at least some of
the building blocks for these molecules could form spontaneously from simple compounds.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 Abiogenesis is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such
as simple organic compounds.
 One criticism of Miller-Urey experiment is that it typically doesn’t produce
nucleotides, the building blocks of RNA and DNA.
 However, one recent study using a different approach found that RNA nucleotides could
be formed from inorganic components under modified conditions thought to truly
resemble those of early Earth.

ACTIVITY CARD #3: Molecular Evidence

Discover the third key evidence on how life started by decoding the term below. Read the
paragraph below to get the answer.

According to some hypotheses, a LUCA "Last Universal Common Ancestor" may be a

set of organisms that lived at the same time and were able to swap genes easily. In either case,
reconstructing the early branches on the tree of life tells us that this ancestor (or set of ancestors)
probably used DNA as its genetic material and performed complex chemical reactions to evolve.
An important line of biochemical evidence comes in the form of surprisingly common
molecules (Homology). As you might expect, many of the chemical reactions occurring in your
own cells, in the cells of a fungus, and in a bacterial cell are quite different from one another;
however, many of them (such as those that release energy to power cellular work) are exactly the
same and rely on the exact same molecules.
An experimental approach Andy Ellington, hypothesizes that in the early RNA world,
RNA copied itself, not by matching individual units of the molecules (as in modern DNA), but
by matching short strings of units — it's a bit like assembling a house from prefabricated walls
instead of brick by brick. He is studying this hypothesis by performing experiments to search for
molecules that copy themselves like this and to study how they evolve.
However, up until the early 1980s, biologists were stumped by a "chicken and egg"
problem: in all modern organisms, nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are necessary to build
proteins, and proteins are necessary to build nucleic acids - so which came first, the nucleic acid
or the protein? This problem was solved when a new property of RNA called ribozyme was
discovered and that means that RNA can both store genetic information and cause the chemical
reactions necessary to copy itself.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 Homology is the similarity in characteristics among living organisms due to shared
ancestry between a pair of structures or genes.
 Ribozyme is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) enzyme that catalyzes a chemical reaction similar
way to that of protein enzymes.

ACTIVITY CARD #4: Extraterrestrial Evidence

Discover the fourth key evidence on how life started by decoding the term below. Read the
paragraph below to get the answer.

Panspermia is the theory that microorganisms or biochemical compounds from outer

space are responsible for originating life on Earth and possibly in other parts of the universe
where suitable atmospheric conditions exist. Essentially, it is a hypothesis which states that life
on earth came from outer space. The discoverer of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick, have
advocated panspermia. There are generally about 3 different hypotheses of panspermia:
1. Naturalistic Panspermia where life evolves on another planet, and naturally gets
ejected off the planet and come to rest on earth in the form of highly resistant spores
called cosmozoa.
 2. Directed Panspermia where intelligent life on other planets intentionally seeded
other planets with their own form of life.
3. Intelligent Design Panspermia, where intelligent beings from another planet came
to earth and designed life here.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

 Various meteorites have turned out to contain organic compounds (derived from space, not
from Earth). One meteorite, ALH84001, came from Mars and contained organic molecules
with multiple ring structures. Another meteorite, the Murchison meteorite, carried nitrogenous
bases (like those found in DNA and RNA), as well as a wide variety of amino acids.
 It is interesting to note that these ideas that the "universe is teeming with spores of life" stem
from the idea that life could originate naturally in the first place. Though this has not been
proven, scientists typically simply assume that life arose naturally with the following reasons.
 Life exists; therefore, it must have arisen naturally.
 If it originated naturally, then the chemical origin of life must have not been highly
improbable.
 If the natural chemical origin of life is not improbable, then it must be happening
elsewhere.
 Therefore, life must exist elsewhere in the universe and it is likely that it exists in a
lot of places.

ACTIVITY CARD #5: Theological Evidence

Discover the fourth key evidence on how life started by decoding the term below. Read the
paragraph below to get the answer.

The oldest hypothesis that life came from a supreme being is called the Divine Creation
Theory. It is believed that life forms and everything in the universe were created through a
supernatural power rather than naturalistic means. The belief among creationists is said to be
common across various cultures in the world.

ENRICHMENT CARD#1: Time of Our Life

Analyze the diagram below. Then arrange the pictures according to its correct sequence by
numbering them from 1-8. Write your answer on the box before each picture.
ENRICHMENT CARD#2: Concept Map
Draw a concept map about the Origin of Life, by choosing the correct words from our pool of
decoded terms taken from the previous activities.

ASSESSMENT CARD
Based on what you have learned about the different hypothesis about the origin of life on earth,
choose the best answer on the following questions. Encircle the letter that corresponds to your
answer
Test Questions:

1. Which origin of life theory states that life arise from pre-existing forms of life?
A. Abiogenesis C. Conspiracy Theory
B. Biogenesis D. Panspermia
2. Which among the following serves as evidence to Divine Creation Theory?
A. cosmozoa C. prokaryotes
B. holy scriptures D. supreme being
3. What do you call the structures formed from the growth of layers of single-celled microbes?
A. cozmozoa C. nucleotide
B. cyanobacteria D. stromatolites
4. Which origin of life theory states that life came from a Last Universal Common Ancestor?
A. Abiogenesis Theory C. Panspermia Theory
B. Divine Creation Theory D. RNA world Theory
5. Which among the following is NOT a hypothesis of Panspermia?
A. Directed Panspermia C. Naturalistic Panspermia
B. Intelligent Design Panspermia D. Spontaneous Panspermia
6. What do you call the (RNA) enzyme that catalyzes a chemical reaction in a similar way to that
of protein enzymes?
 A. cosmozoa C. microfossils
B. cyanobacteria D. ribozyme
7. Which among the following serves as an evidence for Panspermia?
A. amino acids C. microfossils
B. cosmozoa D. ribozyme
8. Which among the following organisms were considered as the earliest life forms?
A. bacteria C. eukaryotes
B. cosmozoa D. prokaryotes
9. Which among the following is considered as an evidence to prove abiogenesis?
A. holy scriptures C. microfossils
B. Miller-Urey Experiment D. prokaryotes
10. Which among the following is considered as the first photosynthetic organism?
A. cyanobacteria C. plants
B. microfossils D. thermopiles
11. Which among the following is NOT capable of being created from the Miller-Urey
Experiment?
A. amino acids C. nucleotides
B. lipids D. sugars
12. Which among the following scientists hypothesized that simple inorganic molecules could
have reacted to form amino acids and nucleotides, creating a "primordial soup"?
A. Alexander Oparin C. Francis Crick
B. Charles Darwin D. Stanley Miller & Harold Urey
13. What do you call the building blocks of RNA and DNA?
A. amino acids C. phosphates
B. nucleotides D. simple sugars
14. When was the earliest time believed to be the start of life on Earth based from fossils
discovered in Western Australia?
A. 1 billion years ago C. 3.5 billion years ago
B. 2.1 billion years ago D. 4.6 billion years ago
15. Which one below best explains the difference between Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes?
A. Eukaryotes contain DNA while Prokaryotes don’t.
B. Eukaryotes have membrane-bound organelles while Prokaryotes don’t.
C. Prokaryotes are photosynthetic while Eukaryotes are not.
D. Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms while Eukaryotes are multi-cellular organisms.

REFLECTION ACTIVITY
Answer the following questions based on your own understanding. You may try to search
through the internet to get more ideas for your answer.

1. Which among the theories about the origin of life do you believe is more possible? Why?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
2. What do you think is going to be the impact on the society if it has been proven that life
was not created by a Supreme Being? Why?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

REFERENCE CARD
Earth and Life Science by Roly B. Bayo-ang, Maria Lourdes G. Coronacion, Annamae T. Jorda and Anna
Jamille Restubog ERC Publishing House pp. 99-103
Exploring Life Through Science--Earth and Life Science by Jose Tolentino Olivar, John Donnie A.
Ramos, Phd and Anna Cherylle Ramos pp. 99-103
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/history-of-life-on-earth/history-life-on-
earth/a/hypotheses-about-the-origins-of-life
https://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/N100/ch8life.html
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evo101/IIE2bStudyorigins.shtml
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

ANSWER CARD

Prepared by: Rommer S. Lopez RN, LPT

Del Carmen National High School