Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana Was Designed to Promote Personalized Learning and Reinforce Classroom Curriculum
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The following Educator’s Guide for Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana was designed to promote personalized learning and reinforce classroom curriculum. The worksheets and classroom activities are appropriate for various grade levels and apply to proficiency standards in social studies, language arts, reading, math, science and the arts. Students are encouraged to use their investigation skills to describe, explain, analyze, summarize, record and evaluate the information presented in the exhibit. The information gathered can then be used as background research for the various Classroom Connections that relate to grade level academic content standards. In order to best suit you and your classroom needs, this Educator’s Guide has been broken up into the following areas: A. Pre-visit Information a. Planning Your Visit i. Enhance Your Dinosaur Experience ii. How to Book Your Field Trip b. Background Information i. What is a Dinosaur? ii. Vocabulary & Concepts iii. Evolution & Classification of Dinosaurs c. Classroom Connections B. Museum Visit Information a. Exhibit Walk-through b. Exhibit Student Worksheet C. Post-visit Information a. Classroom Connections i. Language Arts/Social Studies ii. Science iii. Mathematics iv. Fine Arts D. Teacher Resources a. Further Reading b. Online Resources E. Ohio and National Standards 1 PRE-VISIT INFORMATION Enhance Your Dinosaur Experience The dinosaur experience doesn’t have to end in the exhibit Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana – Cincinnati Museum Center has so much more to offer from hands-on classroom experiences to additional dinosaur exhibits and OMNIMAX® films! For pricing and availability, please call (513) 287-7021. Learning Labs Enhance student learning with these one-of-a-kind hands-on learning opportunities that support and go beyond the exhibit during your visit to Cincinnati Museum Center. For the full listings of Learning Labs offerings or for more information, please visit www.cincymuseum.org/educators. Dinosaur Discovery (Grades 1-5) – Become a junior paleontologist and explore the size and bone structure of dinosaurs while using the tools of the trade, including fossil replicas. This program includes a guided experience in the Museum of Natural History & Science’s Dino Hall. This Little Dinosaur (Pre K-K) – Discover a story that is 65 million years in the making. This interactive tale of exploration and discovery includes dinosaur fossils, footprints and other evidence to help tell the story. This program includes a guided experience in the Museum of Natural History & Science’s Dino Hall. Programs-on-Wheels Bring hands-on museum learning into your classroom with these exciting learning opportunities that come to your school. For the full listing of Programs-on-Wheels offerings or for more information, please visit www.cincymuseum.org/educators. Digging for Dinosaurs (Grades 1-4) – Uncover fossils on a paleontological “dinosaur dig.” Discuss Cincinnati’s world- famous Ordovician fossils. Learn how fossils are formed and make a plaster cast of a fossil for the group to keep. Touchable fossils from dinosaurs such as Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, raptors and many more make this program a junior paleontologist’s dream. Dino Dig (Pre K-K) – Dig up dinosaur fossils and discover their owners’ true identities! Learn about different kinds of dinosaurs, what they looked like, what they ate and how they protected themselves. A variety of activities allow you to growl, claw and walk like a dinosaur. Museum Exhibits While on your field trip, be sure to stop by the following exhibits to further enhance your dinosaur experience. Ancient Marine Life (Museum of Natural History & Science) – Meet some of the marine creatures that lived in our ancient seas including the Coelacanth, Plesiosaur, Xiphactinus, Ohio armored fish and many more. Dino Hall (Museum of Natural History & Science) – Take a look at some of the Mesozoic Eras wonders! With flying reptiles, real dinosaur fossils, complete dinosaur replicas and so much more, you get transported back to the time of the dinosaurs in this exhibit containing one-of-a-kind specimens. Lost Voices (Museum of Natural History & Science) – Learn about the varied life forms that have inhabited our planet in the past and gain a greater understanding of the history of our planet and also of our place on it. Paleo Lab (Museum of Natural History & Science) – Watch staff clean and prepare dinosaur bones and other items collected on recent museum digs. OMNIMAX® Films Round out your dinosaur experience with the perfect OMNIMAX® film all about dinosaurs. Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia – Following Pr. Rodolfo Coria, a world-renown Argentinean paleontologist, we visit sites of major dinosaur discoveries in the Patagonia region of South America and travel back in time to see these amazing beasts come to life. Journey through the lives of two specimens of these superb achievements of evolution. The action is intense and the landscape is out of this world. From space, we have the perfect vantage point to witness the movement of the tectonic plates and the arrival of a comet that may have sealed the fate of the Dinosaurs. 2 How to Book Your Field Trip To help you prepare for your field trip, go to www.cincymuseum.org/educators/visit. Then call (513) 287-7021 Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or fill out the online reservation request form at www.cincymuseum.org/educators. Reservation Check List School Name ____________________________ Teacher Name ___________________________ School Address __________________________ Teacher Phone Number ___________________ Teacher E-mail __________________________ Date of Visit _____________________________ Back-up Date(s) _________________________ Time of Arrival ___________________________ Time of Departure ________________________ Number of Students ______________________ Grade Level(s) __________________________ Number of Adults & Chaperones ____________ 5 students: 1 chaperone through Grade 5 10 students: 1 chaperone Grades 6 and up Time of Arrival __________________________ Time of Departure _______________________ Method of Payment (credit card, check or P.O.) What do we want to do? _____ One Museum Pass _____ OMNIMAX® _____ One Museums Pass + OMNIMAX® _____ All Museums Pass _____ All Museum Pass + OMNIMAX® _____ Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana exhibit _____ Theater LIVE! _____ Learning Lab _____ LITE Lab STEM Experience _____ Programs-on-Wheels _____ Heritage Program Walking Tour _____ Heritage Program Bus Tour _____ Overnight at the Museum _____ Appalachian Culture Fest School Day _____ Scout Program Cancellations Cancellations within 48 hours are subject to pay a fee of 50% of the reservation price. No-Shows are subject to pay 100% of the reservation price. Theater LIVE! requires cancellations two weeks in advance. Cancellations within two weeks are subject to pay a fee of 50% of the reservation price. 3 What is a Dinosaur? With new discoveries and scientific improvements, our understanding of dinosaurs is constantly changing, making it difficult for educators to stay current. Here’s the most up-to-date information to help you stay ahead of the game. Dinosaurs were a unique type of animal that: - lived during the Mesozoic Era from 245 to 65 million years ago. Not all animals that lived during this time were dinosaurs. Many flying reptiles, marine animals, insects, mammals, etc. are often mistaken for dinosaurs. - were vertebrates. All dinosaurs, regardless of their size, had backbones and shared similar skeletal features. - were terrestrial, meaning they lived on land. While some dinosaurs may have been able to wade or paddle through water, they did not live in oceans, rivers or lakes like the swimming reptiles of the Mesozoic Era such as the mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. Dinosaurs also did not spend extended periods of time in flight like the flying reptiles such as the pterosaurs. - walked with their legs positioned directly under their bodies. Like birds and most mammals this adaptation made dinosaurs efficient walkers and runners. Modern reptiles walk with their legs splayed out, their knees always bent and their feet pointed out, rather than forward. - are now extinct, but their descendants are alive today as birds. Through new discoveries and advancements in science, scientists have realized that dinosaurs of the past and modern birds have very similar features including three-toed feet, a wishbone, nests, brooding, feathers, semilunate carpal, hollow bones and hard shelled, oblong eggs just to name a few. A few things to remember: - Dinosaurs did not live with humans. - Dinosaurs did not live in water. - Pterosaurs (flying reptiles) were not dinosaurs. - Dinosaurs did not drag their tails on the ground - footprints suggest that they walked with their tails held off the ground. - The previously named Brontosaurus is now known to be the same species as the Apatosaurus, therefore leaving the separate distinction of Brontosaurus as inaccurate. - Not all dinosaurs lived together – not only were groups of dinosaurs separated by the different landmasses, but during the more than 140 millions of years in which dinosaurs roamed the Earth, many species also went extinct before others ever evolved. Warm-blooded vs. cold-blooded: This is still up for debate but the theory that dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded is gaining traction as new studies are being done. While many scientists now believe that many of the smaller dinosaurs and those with feathers may have been warm-blooded, there is evidence to show that some of the larger dinosaurs may have been closer to cold-blooded but able to control their body temperatures similar to the way a leatherback sea turtle can. 4 Vocabulary & Concepts Continental Drift The theory of continental drift was published by a 32-year-old German meteorologist named Alfred Lothar Wegener in the early 20th century. This is the theory that land masses have been “drifting” across the Earth and have united and separated in several cycles over the Earth’s geological history. Wegener noticed that the coasts of western Africa and eastern South America looked like the edges of interlocking pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.