A Teacher’s Guide to Joe on the Go Grades 3-6 Description Joseph Leidy was said to be the last man to know everything. Even when he was just a boy, he was always trying to understand his world. Known as the Father of American Vertebrate paleontology, Joe was always on the go. In the spirit of Joseph Leidy, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University wants you to engage with the world of science in your classroom and take one of natural history’s most important figures with you! Include Lil’ Leidy in your experiments, take a picture, and share your explorations with the Academy!

This packet includes activities your class can do that relate to the amazing work that Joseph Leidy did throughout his career Keep reading to improve your understanding of the man behind some of the most interesting finds in natural science. Whether he was solving a murder by taking a close look at cell structure or piecing together fossil remains of an ancient beast based on a modern day descendant, Joseph Leidy was always on the go! Let’s join in celebrating 200 years of discovery at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and take Joe on the Go!

This curriculum guide is broken down into three parts that reflect many of the themes of Joseph Leidy’s personal and professional life. Be a Scientist! asks students to apply general scientific skills to their world. Paleontology Rocks! digs deeper into the field of fossils. Small Worlds takes a closer look at the smaller organisms sharing our planet: parasites.

Outcomes Students will understand the contributions of Joseph Leidy not only to the Academy, but also to the field of natural sciences. They will practice the general skills necessary in science such as making observations, recording data, and classifying objects. They will encounter the challenges of paleontology through puzzles, role-playing, and examining current animals. They will explore parasites through games, research, and scientific drawings.

Vocabulary paleontology classification parasite parasitology organism observations taphonomy

Joe on the Go: Be a Scientist!

Classroom Activities: • Observing o As a class, decide on a habitat to observe. Choose a habitat that would be easy to visit on several different occasions (the school yard, a local park, a backyard pond, etc.) Keep a nature journal on the life in that habitat, and don’t forget smaller animals like insects as well as plant life when you observe your habitat! Try to observe the habitat during different seasons. Use digital cameras to document changes in your habitat. For a great resource on helping students to create nature journals, check out Claire Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth’s Keeping a Nature Journal: Discovering a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You. • Classification o Practice the skills necessary for classification by giving small groups of students easily recognized objects (plastic animals, differently shaped beads, etc.) Encourage your students to group the objects by observable features: things they can see, hear, smell, or feel. They will be surprised by how much they have previously missed with these common objects. Have them group them into two groupings or as many as they can identify. Practice grouping the same items different ways. • Measuring and Recording o Discuss with the students the importance of scientists being able to share what they have learned with other scientists. Why is it important to accurately measure and record what they observe? What are some ways to “measure” something? (Length, volume, weight, temperature, coloration, speed, etc.) What are some ways to “record” what they observe? (words, numbers, photographs, charts, drawings, etc.) § Give each student a piece of string. The strings should be various lengths. How would the students measure the length of the string without using a ruler? Allow the students to experiment with different ways of measuring the length of their strings. Have them write down the length using their own measurements and their names on a piece of paper. Mix up their measurements (but keep the strings with their original owners), and pass them out to different students. Have them draw a line as long as they think the described string would be. Give the papers back to their original owners. How did they do? Why would it be important to use measurements like millimeters and inches when describing scientific discoveries? § Fill a large glass with water and add a fizzing antacid tablet. Ask the students to observe it carefully. If they wanted to describe what happened as precisely as possible, how would they do it? Try out different ways to record the event. Draw a picture, time it, videotape it, and count bubbles. Challenge the students to describe the event in as many ways as they can. Do it again with another event like a toy car going down a ramp or a balloon inflating and deflating.

Homework Assignments: • Travels with Lil' Leidy o When Joseph Leidy was a young boy in the early 19th century, he was fascinated with the world around him. He collected plants, rocks, and shells. He spent time studying and drawing the world around him. Have your students research life in the 1800s. How would young Joseph's life have been different than the students' lives? Give each student a “Lil' Leidy” to take with them on their own scientific endeavors.

Interdisciplinary Activities • Scientist Drawings o Give each student a blank piece of paper and drawing implements. Ask them to draw a picture of a scientist. They can also choose to write a description of a scientist. Compare the renderings. What are some common features of what the students drew? Are the pictures overwhelmingly male? Are they wearing glasses and a lab coat? Are they in the field or the lab? What are some words they would use to describe these individuals? Are these realistic portrayals of scientists? Give each student a scientist from history or a modern scientist to study. (Check out the Academy's website for information about Dr. Ruth Patrick for a great place to start! http://www.ansp.org/research/pcer/rp/index.php) Have them revisit their original drawings. Have they changed what they think it takes to be a scientist?

Class Projects • Class Collections o Give each student the task of gathering objects for your collection. You can simply have them collect things that are interesting to them or be more specific in the themes (things from nature, objects that show the colors of the rainbow, etc.) After the collection period, the class must work together to curate their collection. Talk about how to classify objects. Have the students closely observe the objects and group them by size, shape, and color. Are there other ways that they would group their objects together? Put together a display, invite other classes, and have your student curators give tours explaining why they arranged their displays the way they did.

Joe on the Go: Paleontology Rocks

Classroom Activities: • Puzzling Fossils o Talk about the process of “putting together” a dinosaur. What do the students think would be difficult about finding fossils and putting them together? Take a few puzzles with only a few pieces and remove important pieces like edges, corners, and distinct parts. Give small groups of students the prepared piles of pieces but not the missing pieces or the box lid from the puzzle, and ask them to put the puzzle together. Stop them while they are working. What problems are they facing? Talk about how those are some of the same problems a paleontologist might face in trying to put together a skeleton. What sorts of things might help their process? In paleontology, scientists often compare the pieces they find with other animals (comparative biology). Give them the lids from the puzzles. Stop them again. What problems are they facing now? There are missing pieces! Talk about how this was certainly the case when Hadrosaurus foulkii was discovered and is still a challenge with new discoveries today! • Fossils in the field o See attached “Dig Mapping” activity to see how the process of fossil hunting has changed since Hadrosaurus foulkii was found on a farm! • Dinosaur Dissection o Ask your students to describe Tyrannosaurus rex. What did it look like? How did it hunt? How did it move? How do we know anything about an animal that was extinct well before any human was around? Of course, paleontologists look at fossils to begin to describe this extinct animal. That only tells part of the story. Talk about how scientists need to look at animals that are still around today to fill in the gaps left by fossil remains. Fossils give us a great starting point, but to “flesh out” dinosaurs in pictures and models and to start thinking about possible behaviors we must look at animals that we can observe in more detail because they are still alive. What better place to start than the dinosaurs’ closest living relatives: birds? § If classroom policies allow, instruct small groups of students to dissect uncooked chicken wings in order to look closely at how muscle attaches to bone and how the bones work together to move the wing. At each stage, ask students to draw what they observe and take notes on the specimen. Using dissection scissors (or small, sharp personal hygiene scissors) remove the skin from the wings. What do the students observe about the skin? How well was it attached? How did it react to pulling and cutting? Then, using dissection probes (or standard toothpicks), take note of how the muscles are attached to the bone. Move the wing. How do the muscles react? Remove the muscles as cleanly as possible and move the remaining bones. What do the students notice about how the bones are connected? How much force does it take to separate the bones? How would looking at the muscles, connective tissue, and skin of a chicken help them better understand dinosaurs and other extinct animals? § Note: It is best to get the wings from a butcher. Avoid the “party wings” in packs, as you will get the whole wing and not just a small segment. Also, as salmonella contamination is a possibility when working with raw poultry, use latex gloves, cover work surfaces with newspaper, and clean all work surfaces and hands thoroughly after dissection.

Homework Assignments: • Digging with Leidy o Talk with your students about Joseph Leidy. Ask them to think about an imaginary fossil dig with “the last man who knew everything.” What would they talk to him about? What questions would they ask him? Where would they go? What would they find? Ask them to write a short story describing their adventures!

Interdisciplinary Activities • Paleontologist Children’s Book o Write a children’s book on what it takes to be a paleontologist. Be sure to include some history on how the science of fossil hunting has changed since Joseph Leidy was working on Hadrosaurus foulkii. You may have the students work alone or in small groups. Give students examples of books for younger students to illustrate non- fiction for young students. There is a list of great examples that you can browse by age level from the National Science Teachers Association at http://www.nsta.org/recommends. Set educational goals for each book. For example, you may want the young readers of the books to learn how to bring fossils safely back from the field, to find out more about the tools that are important for paleontologists, or to understand what an amazing scientist Joseph Leidy was. Create the books and peer-edit. Then, choose a day for a read-aloud session with a younger class. Did you meet your educational goals?

Class Projects • Tell Your Dinosaur Story o Create your own dinosaur exhibit. Decide as a class what you want people who visit your museum to learn. Do you want to stress the non-avian dinosaur/bird connection and the evolution of dinosaurs? Do you want to focus on American dinosaurs? Will you include any prehistoric “non-dinosaurs” like the Plesiosaurus or a pterodactyl? Visit the Academy’s website to see which animals we included in our Dinosaur Hall at www.ansp.org. Then, create the exhibit in your classroom. Tell the stories you want to tell about the truly fascinating animals that used to (and in some cases still do!) inhabit our planet.

Joe on the Go: Small Worlds

Classroom Activities: • Tapeworm Tag o Tapeworms are fascinating, if not a little disgusting, parasitic organisms. They have a unique life cycle. A tapeworm attaches itself to the lining of the intestines of its host by what is referred to as a scolex. Behind the scolex, there are small segments that are linked together in a beaded chain, giving the tapeworm its “worm-like” appearance. These segments are separate reproductive units. They can break off from the main organism, move independently, and deposit eggs. When they break off, they are shed in the host animal’s feces so that a new host animal may be found. § Play tapeworm tag outdoors or in a large, open indoor space. Have one student designated as “the scolex.” They will function as “it” at the beginning of the game. The scolex then tags another student in the class starting the chain of the tapeworm. Both students are “it” but they must remain linked together. They must then tag another student in the class who will join the chain linked with the first two students. This continues until the chain is four students or reproductive units long. When they reach four segments, the last two students tagged break off and form their own chain. The second chain functions just like the first chain, tagging students and getting longer. Each chain continues tagging, getting longer and breaking off as the first chain. After the game, discuss tapeworms with the students. What advantages does this form of reproduction afford the parasite? How do they think the organism gets from the first host to the next?

Homework Assignments: • Avoiding parasites o Most students will be familiar with the notion that cooking food makes food safer to eat. However, Joseph Leidy was one of the first to look at the cooking of meat as way to prevent parasitic diseases. Ask your students to choose a parasite that infects humans or a parasite like the heartworm that might be found in pets like dogs and cats. Research ways that we as humans or the owners of these pets might avoid infection by these parasites. Each student should create a pamphlet or commercial letting others know of the ways to avoid parasitic infection.

Interdisciplinary Activities • Magnifying Parasites o Joseph Leidy’s work in the study of parasites was unmatched at the time. Virtually no one in America was looking at these impressive organisms. While he certainly used microscopes to look at very small parasites it was up to Leidy himself to magnify and draw the organisms if he wanted to relate what he observed. Ask the students to consider the difficulties in drawing any organism for scientific study, let alone very small parasites. Show them some examples of Joseph Leidy’s work which can be found on the Academy’s online exhibit at http://www.ansp.org/museum/leidy/other/parasitology.php. Practice parasitic drawing with the attached “Small Drawings” activity.

Class Projects • Parasite Zoo o Assign a parasite to each student or pair of students. Allow them to research the parasite, asking them to focus on what animals the parasite usually lives in, how the parasite gets to its host, how the parasite reproduces. Each student should then construct a “zoo enclosure and exhibit” for their parasite, complete with a plaque giving the details of the particular parasite. The enclosure should include everything the parasite would need for survival. For example, a student could design an exhibit that looked like the inside of the intestines for the trichinosis parasite or an artery for a heart worm. And, like any zoo, the students must make sure that not only are their parasites well cared for, but how will they keep visitors safe? Invite other classes to take a field trip to your unusual zoo!

Resources for Students • Practice your observation skills in this online spot the difference game: http://www.spotthedifference.com/practice.asp • Eyewitness: Great Scientists by Jacqueline Fortey • The Everything Kids’ Easy Science Experiment Book: Explore the World of Science through Quick and Fun Experiments by J. Elizabeth Mills • Discover just one of the stories of the Academy’s very own Hadrosaurus foulkii in The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley • Eyewitness: Dinosaurs by Dr. David Norman and Dr. Angela Milner • Study one of a paleontologist’s greatest treasures, the coprolite, in this online game. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/games/who_dung_it/ • Check out Dragonfly TV for a look at how two kids just like you investigate which animals lived with the dinosaurs- http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv Click on “Earth and Space” and then “Dinosaurs” • The Time-Life Guides: Dinosaurs edited by Michael K. Brett- Surman • Build a dinosaur at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis—but make sure it has all it needs to survive! http://www.childrensmuseum.org/games/grades_3-5.htm • Be a parasite sleuth at http://wonderwise.unl.edu/12parasi/kidactivity/index2.htm • What's Eating You?: Parasites -The Inside Story by Nicola Davies and Neal Layton

Additional Resources for Educators • The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water, Measure Gravity- Challenge the World Around You! by Tom Robinson • The website of The Academy of Natural Sciences includes wonderful information on the dinosaurs that can be found in our very own Dinosaur Hall: http://www.ansp.org/museum/dinohall • For a quick reference guide to all things prehistoric, pick up a copy of Smithsonian Handbooks: Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life by Hazel Richardson • Additional dinosaur activities can be found in Janice Van Cleave’s Dinosaurs for Every Kid. For some of the more probing questions about fossils, what happened to the dinosaurs, and the connections between dinosaurs and other animals, check out the University of California Museum of Paleontology at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/. • Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. This is a wonderful book for any educator who wants to bring nature back into the classroom. • Janice Van Cleave’s Animals: Mind-Boggling Experiments You Can Turn into Science Fair Projects by Janice VanCleave • How Nature Works (How It Works) by David Burnie • Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures by Carl Zimmer

Standards:

AAS’s Project 2061 Benchmarks 1. The Nature of Science: The Scientific Worldview 1. The Nature of Science: Scientific Inquiry 5. The Living Environment: Evolution of Life

Pennsylvania Academic Standards in Science and Technology 3.1.4 3.2.4 Pennsylvania Academic Standards in Environment and Ecology 4.7 New Jersey State Science Standards 5.1 5.4

Small Drawings Small Drawings Small Drawings

Small Drawings Dig Mapping This activity is designed to expose students to the idea of a dig site and to give them an idea of how paleontologists determine what happened at a dig site.

Attached is a sample site map that is loosely based on a dig site in the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in Utah. There are some possible resources listed below. We have included some general information for your usage.

While there are not necessarily right or wrong answers when your students are interpreting the site map, included here are some follow-up questions and important background information that will help guide them toward paleontologists’ conclusions about this area. Listed below is some information in response to each question for your use. (Depending on the level of your students, you may choose to allow them to interpret the map on their own without the attached questions first. After the exercise, explain that when scientists were just beginning to study dinosaurs (like Joseph Leidy studying Hadrosaurus foulkii) they weren’t even sure what kind of animal they were working with. Interpretation was difficult. Then, offer guidance in the form of the questions and follow-ups.)

1. What fossils do you see here? How can you tell? Do you think they came from one animal or many animals? What animals do they come from? There are Stegosaurus and Allosaurus fossils here. Look for the Stegosaurus plates and spikes. You can also see Allosaurus skulls and claws. The hip bones of each animal are distinctive, and you can notice an obvious size difference between these two animals.

2. Can you figure out how many of each type of animal was found here? How? To figure out the answer to this sort of question, advise students to pick one type of bone: skull, femur, hip bones, etc. In this case, the easiest is to choose either the skulls or parts of skulls. There are three Allosaurus skulls and one Stegosaurus skull. This is a pretty good indication of how many individuals were at the scene. Ask the students if we can say without a shadow of a doubt that there were definitely four individual animals at this site at the time the animals died. Why or why not?

3. Were the dinosaurs at the dig site herbivores or carnivores? How can you tell? The stegosaur was most likely an herbivore and the Allosaurus was most likely a carnivore. Looking at the skulls on the map, the beak-like mouth of the stegosaur is better suited to eating plant matter (like a modern-day tortoise mouth), while the sharp teeth of the Allosaurus would more likely be used to tear meat (like a modern-day tiger).

4. Are there more carnivores or herbivores at this dig site? What is the ratio? (How many carnivores versus how many herbivores?) There are more carnivores than herbivores. The ratio is 3:1.

Dig Mapping 5. Why do you think there are so many more carnivores than herbivores? Answers will vary with the most likely initial response that the carnivores were eating the herbivore.

6. Look more closely at the bones. Do they look smashed or broken up? What might that tell you about how these animals died? (Hint: If the carnivores ate the herbivores, why would they still be at the site buried with them?) No, the bones are intact. Answers may vary, but paleontologists look at the bones of the Stegosaurus and conclude that they are too intact to have been attacked or eaten by the Allosaurus. They believe that this site may reflect a “predator trap.” A 3:1 ratio of carnivores to herbivores is very unusual; generally predator bones make up only about 10% of the fossils found at a dig site. This site was probably near a lake in a muddy or swampy area. The Stegosaurus may have gotten stuck in the mud and attracted the hungry allosaurs with its thrashing and yelling. When the allosaurs tried to get to the Stegosaurus to eat it, they would have gotten stuck in the mud as well, and they all would have gotten trapped together.

Resources: o http://www.dinosaurdepot.com/dinosaurs_p1.htm Each of the dinosaurs represented in the “Field Guides” has a skeletal drawing at this site to help to identify bones. o http://www.search4dinosaurs.com Look here for great dinosaur illustrations. o http://dsc.discovery.com/dinosaurs/types-of-dinosaurs.html Great information on all four of the dinosaurs in the field guide. o For a glimpse into the process of getting a fossil from dig site to a mount in a museum, visit the Academy’s Fossil Prep Lab online at http://www.ansp.org/museum/dinohall o Follow the journey of a fossil online at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science http://www.dmns.org/main/minisites/fossil/index.html

Dig Mapping Name:______Date:______Dig Mapping

Individual fossils don’t tell the whole story of a dinosaur all by themselves. Very often, we can only begin to piece together how dinosaurs lived when we examine things like a site map. A site map is a drawing of what a paleontologist sees when he or she finds a fossil. This map can be used later to recall what the area looked like and how the fossils were found in relation to one another. It is important to know this in order to answer questions about what happened to the animals before and after death. This is a science called taphonomy.

Let’s put your taphonomy skills to the test. Study the attached site map. What do you think happened here millions of years ago? Answer the questions below.

1. What fossils do you see here? How can you tell? Do you think they came from one animal or many animals? What animals do they come from?

2. Can you figure out how many of each type of animal was found here? How?

3. Were the dinosaurs at the dig site herbivores or carnivores? How can you tell?

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Dig Mapping 4. Are there more carnivores or herbivores at this dig site? What is the ratio? (How many carnivores versus how many herbivores?)

5. Why do you think there are so many more carnivores than herbivores?

6. Look more closely at the bones. Do they look smashed or broken up? What might that tell you about how these animals died? (Hint: If the carnivores ate the herbivores, why would they still be at the site buried with them?)

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Dig Mapping

Dig Mapping: Site Map Joe on the Go: Lil’ Leidy

Instructions for Joe on the Go and Flickr:

1. Upload your Joe on the Go photos to your own Flickr account 2. Go to http://www.flickr.com/gro ups/academyjoeonthego/ 3. Click the link to join the group 4. Click the link “Add Photos” 5. Select all of your Joe on the Go Photos (up to 6 at a time) Dig Mapping 6. Click the “Add to Group” link