Create-An-Organism Paleontology Activity
When learning about fossils, I liked to spend some time talking about paleontology and how paleontologists worked. We did a fun activity called Create-An-Organism. Each group would get pictures of random sets of bones or blank pages and they would work together to determine what their organism looked like and then use “evidence” to determine how it survived in its environment. They had lots of fun with it, it really got their imaginations going, and it led to some pretty important discussions. Our discussions ranged from whether the bones actually belonged with the organism, how the features would help it survive, and what are some clues that would help determine how it lived.
To set this up, I looked up sets of bones and put them in baggies. I had a baggies for the different body sections, such as head, tail, you get the idea. And, I left some of the papers they could draw blank because those bones hadn’t been discovered yet (or hadn’t formed, you choose). You could make this as simple or as complex as you want it to be. You could just have it so there was one big bag for each different body section and groups picked one from each bag. You could also give each group a couple of baggies and make the bones from more related organisms. The idea was to use the evidence available to draw the best conclusions they could. We also tied it in to other things we had learned, like how organisms survive in their environment and habitats. It was a lot of fun, it was easy for me to set up, and it wasn’t time consuming for the students. It was however, very engaging for everyone involved!
Who’s On First Relative Dating Activity
This activity was developed to help students understand the Law of Superposition and how scientists can determine the age of fossils using their position relative to other fossils. It is simple and straightforward, using 2 sets of cards to guide students through putting rock layers in order from oldest to youngest.
I always used this activity for discussion, more than a grade. I put them in groups of 2 or 3 and gave them the instructions and the first card set. They used scratch paper to write down anything they needed, including the interpretation questions. After they finished card set A and showed me they understood it, I gave them set B. We did a whole class discussion of the interpretation questions.
The most time consuming part of this activity was the initial set up. When I make card sets for groups, I copy each set on different colors of paper, that way if I find a card, it is easy to figure out what set it goes with. So, the very first time I used them, I had to make the copies of the sets (with a few extra, because things happen), laminate them, and cut them out. I even had my student aide at the time color code each of the fossils on card set B. I’m not sure how Whitney felt about that, but she did it. I would have had her cut out the laminated cards, but I didn’t plan far enough in advance for that, so I did that myself. Was it the morning I needed them? Why yes, yes it was 🙂 And I’ve had the same sets of cards for almost 20 years. Some activities are just worth keeping.