Paleontology Teacher Resources

By viewing and reading these slides, your precious paleontologists learn what makes a fossil and what scientists can learn by studying them. Consider giving the website to pupils as homework. They can read the slides, take an assessment...

Students study the terms paleontology and archaeology and examine how they can help us learn about prehistoric Native Iowans.  In this archaeology lesson students discuss these terms and view a video on Native Americans. 

Students review, create, and inquire about dinosaurs, the fossilization process, and paleontology by successfully completing each of six classroom stations.

How do scientists determine the age of a dinosaur when it died? Viewers earn how scientists make slides of dinosaur fossils and how they use these images to determine age at death. Part of a larger Eons series from PBS, these beautiful...

DinoWorks is a paleontolgy kit that you can order from skullduggery.com. This resource has directions that come with it. Primary paleontolgists examine bone replicas of the Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus, and Triceratops that you prepare...

Pupils define and investigate paleontology, research geological history of the Chesapeake Bay, review geological time line, and identify fossils of the Chesapeake Bay.

In this paleontology matching worksheet, students match clues related to dinosaurs to scrambled words. Twelve words and clues are given.

Sometimes science is puzzling. Using an online animation, individuals manipulate skeletal bones of an ancient species to recreate its skeleton. Learners complete the skeletal puzzle and learn about the process of paleontology in person...

An intriguing question awaits you and your imaginative learners. What would life be like if dinosaurs had survived and were still alive today? A passionate paleontologist gets kids thinking about what paleontologists do and what would...

Travel with a team of paleontologists as they dig into the Gobi Desert to uncover new species of dinosaurs. They find several dinosaur graves containing a new find, Guanlong, or crested dragon, a never before seen species trapped in a...

Young scholars write a report about a paleontologist. In this paleontology lesson plan, students research and write a report about a noted paleontologist. They discuss the importance of technology to paleontologists and how...

Fossil Lake, Wyoming contains the most complete representation of early Eocene life in the world. The first of three videos on location at Fossil Lake discusses the process of finding fossils. It introduces the tools and methods used to...

A paleontologist finds a fossil, but then what happens? An engaging video explains what happens to fossils once they make it back to the lab. It then demonstrates three different ways of excavating the fossil from the matrix. 

How did scientists unravel the mystery of an ancient beaver species? An engaging video from a well-written biology playlist discusses the discovery of strange spiral fossils found in Nebraska farm country. Junior paleontologists examine...

Young scholars dig for and discover fossils in a classroom setting. They dig on a tarp to find, map, assemble, and photograph their discoveries.

Students go on an imaginary fossil hunt. They follow a script read by the teacher, students "find" (remove from envelope) paper "fossils" of some unknown creature. They attempt to reconstruct fossil pieces into an animal.

Students compare and contrast key skeletal differences between chimpanzees and humans: brain size, teeth, hand and thumb, trunk, pelvis, lower limb, foot and big toe. They then sort and group a set of mixed "fossil bones" of chimpanzee...

Students think critically to determine fact or inference when examining sedimentary layers with embedded fossils. They are being introduced to geology as well as evolutionary biology.

Students identify and interpret the type of evidence found at a typical dinosaur dig and mimic a paleontologist by taking crayon rubbings of simulated bone impressions. After the rubbings are taken, the students reconstruct the complete...

Students explain the difficulty that paleontologists have in assembling fossil bones. Hard cookies are used to simulate dinosaur bones/fossils. They research the Apatosaurus and discuss paleontology.

Expose your archaeologists to a variety of vocabulary words that deal with people who work in the fields of archeology, anthropology, and paleontology. Pictures accompany each of the slides so there is a visual associated with each...

Mini museum curators create an exhibit that showcases the Mesozoic era. Pupils use their knowledge of dinosaurs to make informative posters, drawings, and dioramas. Following three steps to complete the hands-on activity, scholars read...

With its small arms and giant body, many children are fascinated by the T-Rex. Use the online resource to learn about the characteristics of the T-Rex and how scientists study the extinct species. A paleontologist answers a series of...

Sixteen slides showcase an average day on the job for a paleontologist, Ross MacPhee. Engaging images include world maps and real-world photographs from an archeological dig in Antarctica. A brief description accompanies each slide.