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Explorations Explorations Dinosaurs and Fossils | K-3 n Dino and Fossil Facts n Classroom Activities n In-Museum Activities n Chaperone Guide IN THIS GUIDE Explore dinosaur skeletons and fossils of ancient life in the Dinosaurs and Fossils Gallery on Level 3 by inviting students to think like scientists as they make observations, collect information, and make interpretations about ancient life . TABLE OF CONTENTS How to use this guide and user tips . 2 Dinosaur and fossil facts . 3 Pre-visit and Post-Visit Classroom activities . 4 Minnesota Academic Standards . 5 Resources . 5 Chaperone Guide: Tips, Notes, Activities . 6 Student Activities . 12 HOW TO USE THIS EXPLORATIONS GUIDE % Give chaperones copies of the Explorations Dinosaur and Fossil Facts (page 3), the chaperone pages (pages 6-11), student pages (pages 12-13) at least a week before the field trip . % Add your own pages . Provide extensions of museum experiences back at school User TIPS (see pre-visit and post-visit classroom activities) . % Provide students with pencils and student sheets % Activities in this guide can be done in any order . fastened to a stiff backing material such as card- board . Teachers have packed easy-close plastic bags % Questions in this guide are designed to encourage containing these materials for each chaperone . students to “think like scientists” by observing % specific things . The questions are also meant to be Provide tools to each chaperone for the measuring starting points for discussions, with many possible activity such as yarn or string that is marked off in feet, answers and interpretations . Often one question or tape measures . Encourage students to develop will lead students to think of more questions . ways to use their bodies as measuring tools . Practice Encourage chaperones to record these questions these methods in the classroom before the field trip . for after-trip discussions or more research . % Prepare your students for the museum visit by introducing the schedule of the day, behavior expectations, and your expectations . 2 Dinosaur and Fossil Facts The only evidence that dinosaurs once existed on Earth Paleontologists are scientists who study all kinds of is from fossils . Paleontologists compare dinosaur teeth ancient life (not just dinosaurs) from millions and to give clues about their diet . They examine which millions of years ago to 10,000 years ago . They learn fossils are found together, the way fossils are arranged, about this ancient life mainly by studying fossils . and how the fossils compare to structures of living organisms to develop ideas about the behavior and Fossils are the remains of animals and plants that appearance of dinosaurs and other ancient forms of life . have been changed into rock . Fossils can also be impressions such as skin imprints, foot tracks, or a leaf DINOSAURS AT THE SCIENCE MUSEUM impression . Fossils can also show traces of activity OF MINNESOTA such as a nest of eggs, coprolite (feces), or bite marks . The Dinosaurs and Fossils Gallery is on Level 3 Most ancient plants and animals did not fossilize . of the Science Museum . A Triceratops skeleton, a The tissues, bones, leaves or wood rotted, were Tyrannosaurus skull, and other skeletons are in the eaten or scattered and are lost from the fossil record . adjacent Atrium on Level 3 . Addition fossils can be Paleontologists estimate that only a fraction of the explored in the Mississippi Galley (level 5) and in the dinosaurs that have lived on Earth have been or will museum Lobby . be found as some sort of fossil . The Science Museum has the following dinosaurs Under the right circumstances, animal and plant parts on display: Stegosaurus*, Diplodocus*, Allosaurus*, or impressions can turn into rock . The organism must Camptosaurus*, Triceratops*, Apatosaurus, be buried quickly (sinks into mud, covered by blowing Camarasaurus, Thescelosaurus*, Compsagnathus*, sand, buried under clay or mud in a body of water,) be Stegoceras, Dromaeosaurus*, Chasmosaurus, covered by more and more sediment . The chemicals Dilophosaurs, Plateosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, from the living material must also be changed . As the Prosarolophus, Anatosaurus. original materials in bone, teeth, leaves or wood slowly (*are full skeleton reproductions) decay, water that is rich in dissolved minerals seeps into the material and replaces the original chemicals . There usually is no original material left in a fossil— only rock . The majority of fossils are excavated from rock that formed from sediments such as sand, clay, mud, or gravel . When layers of sediment build up over time, the weight of the layers and the possible addition of chemicals dissolved in water cause the sediments to compress or cement into rock . The type of sedimentary rock in which fossils are found gives paleontologists clues they use to determine the age of fossils found in them . 3 PRE-VISIT CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES These activities allow students to practice skills they will use for activities during their field trip . 1) What’s the Difference? 2) Measuring How BIG? 3) Use Your Senses: Practice Purpose: To compare and contrast How Small? Listening to Nature and similar classroom items . Purpose: To practice using Animal Sounds Discussion: Look at the same measuring tools and techniques Purpose: To use sense of hearing part of two pieces of classroom students will use in the Dinosaurs to observe nature and animal furniture, such as chair or table and Fossils Gallery . sounds . legs, chair seats or backs . Discuss Student activity: Give small groups Student activity: Listen to various similarities and differences in shape, of students an 8–10 foot long nature and animal sounds on size and function . piece of yarn or string, a ruler, and internet websites . Student activity: Draw the part a marker . Have groups use the ruler Suggested websites: from the two pieces of furniture . and marker to mark off one-foot • The California Library of Natural Label the drawings with the segments along the yarn/string . Sounds name of the furniture and the Have groups use the marked yarn/ www .naturesounds .org/clns .html string to measure the length in feet name of the part . Describe what Collection of sounds of California is the same and what is different of various items in the classroom and record their measurements . sounds and environments . Click between these furniture parts . on “Listening to Nature: A Sound Walk Across California” to hear recording from the seacoast, mountains, deserts and other areas . Recordings include sounds POST-VISIT ACTIVITIES of water, wind and animals . % Graph the dinosaur measurements from the • The Cornell Lab of Ornithology How BIG? How small? activity . Macaulay Library % Use the measuring yarn/string to find out how the measured www .macaulaylibrary .org dinosaurs would fit into the classroom or other parts of the school . Hundreds of sounds recorded from % As a class brainstorm: What do we know about how scientists study animals around the world . This dinosaurs . site takes some time to explore and sample . Try donkey (#63353), % Investigate some of the questions the students raised during American bullfrog (#166450), Great the field trip . horned owl (#22872), American % Make clay models of the body parts students alligator (#105756) . observed in the What’s the Difference activity . 4 MINNESOTA Academic STANDARDS SCIENCE MATHEMATICS Kindergarten Kindergarten Nature Of Science And Engineering Geometry And Measurement 0 .1 .1 .2 .1 Use observations to develop an accurate K .3 .1 .1 Recognize basic two- and three-dimensional shapes description of a natural phenomenon and compare one’s such as squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, observations and descriptions with those of others . hexagons, cubes, cones, cylinders and spheres . K .3 .2 .1 Use words to compare objects according to length, Life Science size, weight and position . 0 .4 .1 .1 .1 Observe and compare plants and animals . K .3 .2 .2 Order 2 or 3 objects using measurable attributes, such 0 .4 .1 .1 .2 Identify the external parts of a variety of plants and as length and weight . animals including humans . 0 .4 .2 .1 .1 Observe a natural system or its model, and identify Grade 1 living and nonliving components in that system . Geometry And Measurement 1 .3 .2 .1 Measure the length of an object in terms of multiple Grade 1 copies of another object . Nature Of Science And Engineering 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 When asked “How do You Know?”, students support Resources their answer with observations . Books 1 .1 .1 .1 .2 Recognize that describing things as accurately as possible is important in science because it enables people Smithsonian Handbooks: Fossils by Cyril Walker and to compare their observations with those of others . David Ward, DK Publishing, 2002 . ISBN 978-0-7894-898-5 . 1 .1 .3 .12 .1 Recognize that tools are used by people, including This book is visually appealing with its easy-to-read text, scientists and engineers, to gather information and solve detailed photographs of fossils, and artists’ reproductions problems . of what the animals may have looked like . Scholastic Dinosaurs A to Z: The Ultimate Dinosaur Life Science Encyclopedia by Don Lessem, Scholastic, 2003 . ISBN 1 .4 .1 .1 .1 Describe and sort animals into groups in many 9780439165914 . Over 700 entries in alphabetical order ways, according to their physical characteristics and provide descriptions and visuals, classification information, behaviors . location, diet and other interesting facts strictly about dinosaurs . Written for grades 4–8 . Grade 2 Nature Of Science And Engineering Dinosaur DK Books, Eye Wonder Series by Sarah 2 .1 .1 .2 .1 Raise questions about the natural world and seek Walker and Samantha Gray, DK Publishing, 2001 . answers by making careful observations, noting what ISBN 978-0789478511 . Dramatic visuals, informative and happens when you interact with an object, and sharing the accurate text, and explanations of new vocabulary give answers with others . current children age 5 and up an intriguing introduction to the world of dinosaurs .
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