Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Evolution and the Fossil Record

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Engage young biologists with four laboratory activities that explore the fossil record. Learners examine fossil images, a fossil kit, the rock record, and geologic time scale. They even experiment with the oxygen production of an Elodea...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils and Lithologic Units

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Practicing paleontologists map the geologic time scale, simulate the formation of sedimentary rock, and analyze fossil data. Instructions for four activities and five assessment choices are provided for the teacher. This comprehensive...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Old Is Illinois?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers use fossils found in rocks to determine the age of the strata between Rock Island and Chicago. Pupils pretend they are geologists. They must determine the age of all rock layers between the Mississippi River and Lake...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils Footprints Across Time

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students examine fossils to understand how they are formed and how they give information about geological history. In this fossil lesson, students research and write about fossils and make models of different fossil types.The PDF...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

To The Clock of Eras

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders investigate the events of geological time using a chart called a "Clock of Eras". In this geological events lesson plan, 3rd graders compare a standard clock to a geological clock. In addition, students consider periods...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding the Geologic Timescale

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students identify and analyze how the geologic time scale was developed by investigating 11 periods of time and the vast expanse of time of the Earth's existence. They study their period, determine the important factors indicative to...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Weighing the Evidence for a Mass Extinction Part 2: On Land

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
What can fossils tell us about periods of extinction? Young scholars interpret fossil layers to make conclusions about changes in life during different geological time periods. They analyze the fossils for abundance and diversity as well...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Fuels: Facing the Issues

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students explore energy by researching fuel usage on Earth. In this fossil fuel lesson, students define fossil fuels, the energy created by burning them, and the impact on the environment when using them. Students conduct pollution...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students complete a unit on fossils. They read and discuss informational handouts, define key vocabulary terms, answer discussion questions, create a geologic timeline and a timeline of their own life, analyze bones, and create a fossil...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Great Fossil Find - Reconstructing the Pieces

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Basin Filled With Time

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use fossil leaves and a mathematical formula to study climate change. In this climate change and fossil lesson plan, students determine the differences in temperatures during two different times during the Cenozoic era using...
App
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

EarthViewer

For Students 6th - Higher Ed Standards
Can you imagine Washington DC and London as close neighbors occupying the same continent? Learners will be fascinated as they step back in time and discover the evolution of the earth's continents and oceans from 4.5 billion...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Fossils

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders examine the differences between cast and mold fossils. They discuss geological time and how many fossils are millions of years old, then create a cast fossil using clay and a shell, and a mold fossil using a shell and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Finding the Ages of Rocks and Fossils

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students practice dating fossils. They learn the concept of "deep time"--that earth was formed billions of years ago. They experience excellent hand-outs and virtual age tutorial links.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Science: Making Trace Fossils

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Young scholars explore types of fossils and discover how sediment affects fossil preservation. They focus their study on trace fossils and create their own using sediment, water, and a small organism such as a snail or lizard. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Old Is Illinois?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use fossils found in rocks to determine the age of rock in Illinois. They use a chart to identify the fossils and then identify the periods of rock.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Hunt

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students ask questions about the nature of science as they experience a 'Fossil Hunt'. They reconstruct a book that has been literally destroyed, just as the fossil record has been changed by billions of years of geological processes.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Candle-Wax Fossils: Casts, Molds, and Impressions

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students examine and define fossils. They create their own impressions and molds in clay and candle wax, making external and internal molds.
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

Pterosaurs: The Card Game

For Students 6th - 12th
Piecing together the past is a challenging endeavor. Learners get a taste of that challenge as they play a game that incorporates several components such as trophic levels, geological time periods, and catastrophic events. Pairs work to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mud Fossils

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Learners create their own fossils in an activity using plaster of paris and a variety of objects which can be fossils, e.g. chicken bones, twigs, shells, etc. After making their fossils, they allow them to dry and discuss time and its...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

It's All in the Rocks

For Teachers 6th - 12th
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Mystery Box

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students design a mystery box to hold an object related to the timeline of life studies. In this timeline of life lesson, student play a game with fossils and other remnants of past times and guess the era it comes from.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earth's History

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders study the law of superposition by creating models of fossils in layers of rock. They examine how fossils are usually found in sedimentary rock which leads to the study of geologic history in those rocks.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Digging Into the Past

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders study fossils and how they are charted. In this fossil lesson plan, 5th graders research the excavation process of discovering fossils, and view fossils. They then do a hands on activity that involves plastic fossils that...

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