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Core Components
Subject, Content Area, or Topic
Science: Fossils
Student Population
Students will be able to explain why scientists study fossils and what they can learn from them.
Student will be able to make inferences from reading.
Virginia Essential Knowledge and Skills:
Nonlinguistic Representations
27%
Cooperative Learning
23%
Setting Goals & Providing Feedback
23%
Practice by Doing
75%
Discussion
50%
Demonstration
30%
Time
(min.)
Audio Visual
Reading
Lecture
20%
10%
05%
Process Components
State the Objectives (grade-level terms)
We are going to discover why scientists study fossils and what fossils can tell us about earths past.
2/16
5 min
Engage
Teacher will activate students prior knowledge by having students complete the first two sections
of a KWL chart.
2/16
Explain
The teacher will use the fossils PowerPoint to explain what fossils are, how they are formed, and
what scientists who study them are called. During this instruction, the teacher will ask engaging
questions: Why do paleontologists study fossils? What are mold and cast fossils similar to?
Why do you think most fossils are of fish and marine animals? Why are there few fossils of
plants? How is a paleontologist similar to a detective?
Explore
In groups of three, students will visit dig site from around the world that are set up around the
room. At each station, students will make observations, record inferences, and sketch their guesses
of what this are looked like in the time the fossils were alive. Each student will have a job of either
the reporter, recorder, or sketcher. When the teacher sees that the students are ready, she will
instruct the students to move to the next station.
Elaborate
After completing the fossil dig site stations, the class will come back together and the teacher will
provide students with additional information about the dig sites so students can see if their
inferences were correct.
Evaluate
After completing all of the activities and instruction, students will complete the last section of their
KWL chart. The teacher will use this to assess students understanding.
20 min
2/19
20 min
2/19
5 min
2/19
5 min
2/19
2 min
Closure
Everything we have been learning over the last few weeks (erosion, weather, deposition, the rock
cycle, and now fossils) have shown us that the earth is constantly changing. Imagine what the earth
will look like in the future.
Dig Site #1
Location: Alnif, Morocco
Morocco is a country in Africa that is characterized by rugged
mountains and large portions of desert. It is one of only three
countries (with Spain and France) to have both Atlantic and
Mediterranean coastlines.
Fossils Found: Trilobites
Trilobites are sea creatures that became extinct a long time ago.
They are related to other arthropods (animals with exoskeletons)
such as crabs, scorpions, and insects. They are most closely related
to horseshoe crabs. These animals lived deep on the ocean floor.
Dig Site # 2
Location: Vega Island
Vega Island is part of the continent of Antarctica. It is also close to
the country of Norway. Antarctica is the coldest of earths
continents and reaches the lowest temperatures on the planet.
Vega Island is a frozen dessert where little rain or snow falls. Very
few plants and animals can survive here.
Fossils Found: A team of Argentinean and U.S. scientists has
found fossils of a duck-billed dinosaur, along with remains of
Antarctica's most ancient bird and an array of giant marine
reptiles. The tooth of a duck-billed dinosaur, or hadrosaur, was
found in sands from the Cretaceous period. This is the first duckbilled dinosaur to be found outside the Americas.
Dig Site # 3
Location: The Paris Basin, France
France is a country on the continent of Europe. The Paris Basin is
a small geological structure in Northern France. The climate in
Northern France is a semi-continental climate which is very
similar to that of Virginia. The landscape where the fossils were
found is full of hills and rock formations.
Fossils Found:
Meganeura is an extinct insect from the Carboniferous period,
which resembles and are related to the present-day dragonflies.
They have wingspans of up to 25.6 inches. Thats more than 2
feet! This is one of the largest known flying insect species.
Dig Site # 4