Fossils: Clues to Ancient Life
You can make your students amateur paleontologists with great fossil lesson plans.
By Jennifer Sinsel
Ask nearly any young child about dinosaurs, and he or she will almost certainly have some facts to share about these ancient reptiles. Most elementary school students are fascinated with dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. How do we know about the appearance, behavior, and habitats of these creatures? The answer lies in fossils. While we will probably never know the whole truth about organisms of the past, paleontologists can analyze fossils to piece together clues that provide us with some answers.
A fossil is the preserved remains of past life, or the traces of past life (such as footprints). There are several types, which include body, trace, mold, and cast fossils. Body fossils are the preserved remains of body parts, such as bones or teeth. This preservation sometimes occurs when the carcass of an animal is covered with sediment soon after death, preventing immediate weathering and decay. Trace fossils provide evidence of how animals lived, and include such things as burrows, eggs, or footprints. Molds provide a negative imprint of an organism in the rock, and casts provide a positive imprint.
Paleontologists are scientists who study ancient life, and they often act as detectives to ascertain information from fossil finds. Oftentimes, a paleontologist has to identify an animal using only has a few bones. From these bones, he or she also tries to determine what the animal ate, where it lived, how it died, and many other things. This requires a lot of problem solving skills. In order to give students some idea of how paleontologists use fossil clues to learn more about ancient organisms, I conduct a simple activity (a more advanced version can be found in the lessons below):
1. Before class, find at least 10 photos of various animals. Photos can be found in magazines or printed from the Internet.
2. Cut the animal from each photo into puzzle pieces, and place it in a manila envelope. Depending on the age and experience level of your students, you can make the activity more difficult by cutting smaller pieces (which amounts to a greater number of pieces) for the puzzle.
3. Divide students into groups of two or three. Give each group an envelope and tell them to pull out one puzzle piece at a time. They should try to decide which animal their envelope contains, and record their guess after drawing each piece. Based on their pieces, they should also attempt to figure out some facts about the animal (where it lives, what it eats, etc . . . ).
4. Once students are certain what their animal is, they should record their final guess and pull out the rest of their pieces to check their answer.
5. For added difficulty, you can mix the pieces of two puzzles together. This simulates finding the fossilized remains of many different animals in one location, and it provides an extra challenge for students.
For more great activities involving fossils, you can try the following lesson plans.
Fossil Lesson Plans:
Choose Your Own Fossil Adventure
In this lesson students learn about dinosaur fossils. They conduct a investigation in which they find T-Rex fossils.
After doing Internet research, students learn about fossils. They use fossils to find out information. They figure out what is fact and fictional information about dinosaurs.
In this lesson students learn about fossil impressions. Students learn about casts, molds, traces, and imprints. They make their own impressions, after discussing the different types.
This lesson has students learn about he work of paleontologists. Students go on a simulated dig, and find fossils. They then figure out what animal the bones came from.
