Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Kit I - Lesson Plan

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Here is a 14-page lesson plan that deftly outlines a wonderful educational experience for your youngsters. In it, students learn about a variety of animals that have left behind clues of their existence in fossil form. Many excellent...
Lesson Plan
Science Friday

Fossil Detectives

For Students 6th - 8th
What can this rock be? Pupils pretend to be paleontologists by sketching fossils and making predictions about their types. To determine whether they can identify the type of dinosaur, class members compare their observations and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Kit II

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Youngsters examine four fossil replicas and chart their time periods, vertebrate or invertebrate, and the names of other organisms living at the same time. A specific fossil kit is available for sale if you do not have the same samples....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Do We Learn From Fossils?

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students investigate what a fossil is and how it came to be.  In this fossil lesson, students examine pictures of skeletons and identify characteristics that can and cannot be determined by a fossil.  Students complete diagrams...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson 1 - What Are Fossils?

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students define and research fossils. In this fossil instructional activity, students access teacher assigned Internet sites to examine images of fossils. They determine the definition of a fossil and find out how fossils are formed....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fun with Fossils

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders explore the geologic process of fossil formation. In this geology lesson, 2nd graders discuss the job of a paleontologist and make their own model of a fossil. This lesson includes teacher directed questions.
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

Fossil Formation

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students discuss fossils. In this science lesson, students simulate fossils within Earth's layers by using gummy fish and bread.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Living Fossils

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students study the term living fossil and examine why some of the reasons they survived.  In this fossils lesson plan students form a hypothesis and use data to see if it is accurate. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Adventure

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students create a book about the process of a dinosaur becoming a fossil.  In this earth science lesson, students are taught about fossils and create a book that tells what happened to a dinosaur's bones after they die.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Fuels-Importance and Formation

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Student is introduced to the concept of energy as a common factor among all things. They list three fossil fuels and describe how fossil fuels were formed. They then tell how much plant debris it took to form one foot of coal.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Adventure

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students work as a class to write a general definition of fossil based on their discussion and examine pictures of the different types of fossils. Once discussion is complete, they write and illustrate a book about a T Rex that has died...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

LESSON PLANS (print version) pdf What is a Fossil?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students can better explain how mould and cast fossils occur when they make their own cast fossils using plaster of Paris and objects such as shells, bone or even their own hand or footprint.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Impressions in Clay

For Teachers K - 8th
Students examine how fossils are created. They make impressions of different objects in clay and compare them to examples of fossils.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Impressions of Ancient Life

For Teachers K - 6th
Students make a mold using Plaster of Paris and then make a cast using that same mold. They pick a fossil and describe how it looks. They write a fictionalized story about its life, or burial. (
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

T-Rex

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine the differences between a scavenger and a predator.  In this predator lesson students research an animal and study its physical traits. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Parts of a Crinoid

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Learners study the parts of a crinoid. In this parts of a crinoid instructional activity, students look at pictures of a crinoid fossil or examine an actual fossil if one is available. They match names to pictures of the parts in the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

CyberHunt: Digging for Dinosaurs

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students discover dinosaur facts using internet research. In this 2nd - 3rd grade lesson plan, students identify various dinosaur facts. Students use internet research to answer questions regarding dinosaurs.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Big is a Dinosaur?

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders create enlarged replica of a stegosaurus drawing, using a grid to practice coordinates.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Carbon Dioxide - Sources and Sinks

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Where does all of the carbon dioxide come from that is supposedly leading to climate change? Earth science pupils test animal, plant, and fossil fuels as sources in this investigation. Using an indicator, BTB, they are able to detect the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

In the Wild

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders examine the concept of ecology and how animals are suited to their habitats. For this animal adaptation lesson, 3rd graders identify a variety of plants and animal species that live in a Beech forest.Students create a food...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pollen Tracks

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students participate in an artificial dig investigating imitiation rock samples that contain "pollen" from ancient plants. Students determine which plants the pollen samples came from.
Lesson Plan
Green Learning

Build Your Own Biogas Generator

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Where this is not exactly a lesson plan, it is a terrific outline of how to generate biogas from an animal manure sample. If you are up for the challenge, the generator can be built by your class as a concluding project at the end of an...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Identifying Dinosaurs

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students investigate basic information about dinosaurs. They listen to the book, "My Visit To the Dinosaurs," explore various websites, take an online quiz, and play an online dinosaur game.