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LESSON PLANS (print version) pdf What is a Fossil?
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.
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Dinosaurs
Students will develop goals for inquiry. They will also improve content area reading and research skills. The context of studying dinosaurs will help learners to distinguish from organisms that live presently and those from the past...
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Fossil Hunters!
Students explore the various ways in which geologists create fossil records. Working in pairs, students create a model of a fossil record through a hands on activity. They relate their experience to recent discoveries in geology and...
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Fossil Adventure
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.
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What Do We Learn From Fossils?
Students investigate what a fossil is and how it came to be. For this fossil lesson, students examine pictures of skeletons and identify characteristics that can and cannot be determined by a fossil. Students complete diagrams of a...
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Paleontologist: Can You Dig It?
Students investigate what a paleontologist does. They participate in a dinosaur dig, write a story, and explore the Dinosaur Dig website to view and discuss photos of a real dinosaur dig.
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Creating New Forms of Life
Although not particularly educational, here is a creative group activity in which high school biologists will use their imaginations to create a new life form combining characteristics from existing life forms. Each group must come up...
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Fossil Footsteps
Fourth graders create their own dinosaur tracks using clay. In addition, 4th graders compose a story about the dinosaur / animal who created the tracks. They study photographs of dinosaur tracks before beginning.
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What We Know About Dinosaurs?
Third graders determine what can and cannot be learned from fossils. In this fossils lesson, 3rd graders discuss what can and cannot be learned from fossils, then students create and observe their fossils.
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Dinosaur Daze
Students review, create, and inquire about dinosaurs, the fossilization process, and paleontology by successfully completing each of six classroom stations.
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Footprint Detectives: Making Inferences Using Dinosaur Trackways
Pupils analyze and discuss footprints and dinosaur tracks. They listen to books about paleontologists, create and analyze their own trackways using black paper and chalk, examine the data, and form hypotheses about footprints and...
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What are the Different Kinds of Fossils?
Students examine different types of fossils. In this fossil lesson plan, students investigate the attributes of mold fossils, trace fossils, cast fossils, and true form fossils. Students create their own fossil samples.
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Fossil Evidence for Plate Tectonics
Learners draw maps of counties that were important to the discovery of plate tectonic theory. In this plate tectonics instructional activity students excavate constructed fossil sites from matching coastlines and discuss the possible...
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Make a Cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex Fossil
Second graders examine the formation of fossils and list the different types. They make cast model of a dinosaur fossil. They write about conditions that are necessary for fossils to form and create a model of a buried fossil.
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Dig It!
Second graders complete various activities about dinosaurs and fossils. They conduct Internet research, participate in a sandbox dinosaur fossil dig, and create a computer slideshow presentation using information they found on various...
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Geology
Fourth graders devise a workable inch-to-inch scale for a geologic timeline sequencing the eras covered in the unit. They hypothesize from descriptions of dinosaur fossil evidence.
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Earth Lesson Plans
Students gain understanding of how a fossil is formed and why they are so important. For this fossil lesson students create their own fossils.
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Creating New Forms of Life
High schoolers are asked to use their imaginations to take the idea of biotechnology one step further. Before beginning this activity students read and complete a report on the book "Jurassic Park," which deals with the use of...
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Dinosaurs II Assembling a Dinosaur
Students investigate where scientists find dinosaur bones and decide why rebuilding them is important. They create a scale model of a dinosaur.
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No Bones About It
Young scholars act as paleontologists, examining pictures of dinosaur skeletons and applying their knowledge of the relationship between skeletal features and survival, to create 'Paleontology Reports' about their perceptions of the...
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Dinosaur History (Part 1)
Students explore and interpret scientific data through a Biblical world view. They discuss scientific dating methods of dinosaur bones. Students compare and contrast Biblical and evolutionary views.
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Dino Traces
Young scholars are introduced to the type of evidence that is found at a typical dinosaur dig. They create rubbing casts of bone impressions on paper and, using bones, identify dinosaurs.
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Fossils
Pupils discuss the work of a paleontologist and examine several fossils and books on paleontology. They use clay and Plaster of Paris to create a cast of an object and compare this activity to the formation of fossils in nature.
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Fossils
First graders write a brief informational description of a real life object, person, place or event using information gained from observations. They create their own fossil imprints and write a brief description about the fossil that...