BUILDING A TOPOGRAPHIC MODEL ELLEN P. METZGER INTRODUCTION THE ACTIVITIES that follow are from The Best of BAESI, a collection of 19 hand-on lessons modeled by teacher-participants in the Bay Area Earth Science Institute. BAESI was founded in 1990 at San Jose University. A non-profit organization supported by the National Science Foundation, San Jose State University, and a consortium of government, corporate, and academic partners, BAESI is built on the following observations: — Earth scie ...

PALEO COOKIE DIG SHARON K. HEINDEL INTRODUCTION Grade Level: 1-3 Time: Approximately one hour. Purpose: Students are introduced to the concept of a dig site and the use of simple grids. Skills: The science and mathematics process skills used include: observation, classification, simple grids and bar graphs. — At the Mammoth Site we use the bone bed and our Junior Paleontologist dig as a visual for the students. For teachers too far away to visit the Mammoth Site, a mock dig could be s ...

DETERMINING AGE OF ROCKS AND FOSSILS FRANK K. MCKINNEY THE AGE of fossils intrigues almost everyone. Students not only want to know how old a fossil is, but they want to know how that age was determined. Some very straightforward principles are used to determine the age of fossils. Students should be able to understand the principles and have that as a background so that age determinations by paleontologists and geologists don't seem like black magic. There are two types of age determinatio ...

DINO-FACTS — A UNIT ON DINOSAUR BEHAVIOR JUDITH SCOTCHMOOR INTRODUCTION THIS PARTICULAR set of dino-facts is based upon work done by Jack Horner and other associates of The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. The data has been used in order to theorize about the behavior of dinosaurs in that area. Students should have some working knowledge about the three dinosaurs mentioned before beginning this activity. It is sufficient for them to know that several different dinosaurs lived at ...

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FOSSILIZATION AND ADAPTATION: ACTIVITIES IN PALEONTOLOGY BRENT H. BREITHAUPT INTRODUCTION AS THE concepts of time, past life, and fossils are often difficult for children to comprehend and as many of the National Parks and Monuments have important paleontological resources, Fossil Butte National Monument developed a fossil education curriculum guide designed to aid teachers presenting these principles to students in the second and third grades. The following activities are modified from that ...

ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION: SOLVING A PHYLOGENETIC PUZZLE USING MOLECULAR GENETICS R.P. FILSON PREFACE ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY and Evolution is an activity about the evolution of three species of lizards on the Canary Islands. It is designed for high school biology students. Its purpose is to demonstrate to students that evolutionary problems are complex, and solutions may involve data from various disciplines of science. First, students must arrive at different phylogenetic solutions usi ...

MICROFOSSILS JERE H. LIPPS INTRODUCTION MICROFOSSILS ARE the tiny remains of bacteria, protists, fungi, animals, and plants. Microfossils are a heterogeneous bunch of fossil remains studied as a single discipline because rock samples must be processed in certain ways to remove them and microscopes must be used to study them. Thus, microfossils, unlike other kinds of fossils, are not grouped according to their relationships to one another, but only because of their generally small size and met ...

Academy Curricular Exchange Columbia Education Center Science Jerry Mohar, Lyle High School, Lyle, WA DINOSAURS Appropriate for grades 3-12. OVERVIEW: Dinosaurs have been intriguing to all age groups from elementary children to adults. Controversy over this interesting group of animals continues today as well as when the first fossil bones were discovered. This time period in the earth's history holds many questions not yet answered as to ...

Academy Curricular Exchange Columbia Education Center Science TITLE: Fossils AUTHOR: Sharon Freeman, Union Elementary, OR GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 1-2 Science OVERVIEW: Many students are interested in dinosaurs at this age level so it is easy to motivate them. However, in order for them to understand the time frame and how we know this information, they need to understand the importance of fossils and how they tell us about our past. PURPOSE: The purpose of thi ...

Academy Curricular Exchange Columbia Education Center Science TITLE: Dinosaurs! AUTHOR: Anna Torres, Carroll Elem., Bernalillo, NM GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: K©2, science OVERVIEW: Children are fascinated with dinosaurs. They want to learn everything about dinosaurs and will remember the large names with ease at the amazement of their parents. PURPOSE: The purpose of this activity is to provide the opportunity to practice developmental skills while learning about din ...

"ROUND ROCKS": TEACHING THE PRINCIPLES OF EARTH SCIENCE AND PALEONTOLOGY WARREN D. ALLMON AND DAVID H. GRIFFING INTRODUCTION SUPPOSE YOU are given one hour to tell someone about paleontology. The audience is naive but interested. They want to know something about paleontology but have not previously received, and may ever again receive, formal instruction in the subject. What will you choose to talk about? Will you choose to talk about local fossils, local geological history, how to colle ...

SEQUENCING TIME JUDITH SCOTCHMOOR TELLING THE history of the earth requires placing events in sequence so that reference can be given to the relative and/or numerical time at which each event occurred. This helps to make sense out of the enormous expanse of time that has elapsed since the origin of the earth. This activity will help students to understand the methods used by geologists in creating the Geologic Time Scale. Objectives: 1) Students will place events in sequence and assign rel ...

TENNIS SHOE DETECTIVES SHARON K. HEINDEL INTRODUCTION Grade Level: 2-4 Time: Approximately one and a half hours, or 45 minutes on two consecutive days. Purpose: This exercise encourages students to make observations, examine data, and form hypotheses. These are concrete skills that easily transfer to other science activities. Overview: Sets of class footprints are made using flour, ground chalk, or light soil and black or colored construction paper. Groups of students write a mystery st ...

WHAT CAME FIRST? JUDITH SCOTCHMOOR THIS ACTIVITY is an effective follow-up to Sequencing Time. After sequencing events in their own lives and assigning each a numerical time, students use the same process to sequence actual events in the evolution of life on Earth. Objectives: (1) Students will gain an understanding of deep time — 4.6 billion years of Earth's history. (2) Students will become familiar with events in the Earth's history and how they relate to one another. Explore these links ...

WHO'S ON FIRST? A RELATIVE DATING ACTIVITY MARSHA BARBER and DIANA SCHEIDLE BARTOS INTRODUCTION PALEONTOLOGY, AND in particular the study of dinosaurs, is an exciting topic to people of all ages. Although most attention in today's world focuses on dinosaurs and why they became extinct, the world of paleontology includes many other interesting organisms which tell us about Earth's past history. The study of fossils and the exploration of what they tell scientists about past climates and envir ...