Here is a 14-page lesson plan that deftly outlines a wonderful educational experience for your youngsters. In it, students learn about a variety of animals that have left behind clues of their existence in fossil form. Many excellent...

Youngsters examine four fossil replicas and chart their time periods, vertebrate or invertebrate, and the names of other organisms living at the same time. A specific fossil kit is available for sale if you do not have the same samples....

Young scholars create posters to raise awareness about endangered species.  In this endangered and extinct species lesson, students use the Internet to research endangered and extinct animals, record their findings on a chart and...

Learners explore how to read fossil range charts. They develop an knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the fossil record. Students become familiar with the concepts index fossil and fossil range. Learners use bar graphs to...

Second graders explore the geologic process of fossil formation. In this geology activity, 2nd graders discuss the job of a paleontologist and make their own model of a fossil. This activity includes teacher directed questions.

Third graders examine animals and organisms that have become extinct and their similarities to living organisms.  In this extinction lesson students divide into groups and research extinct animals.

Students study the term living fossil and examine why some of the reasons they survived.  In this fossils lesson students form a hypothesis and use data to see if it is accurate. 

What an impression fossils make! In this activity, aspiring paleontologists view fossils and construct a timeline to further understand how the lack of natural adaptation caused historical organisms to become extinct. While they...

Step right up! An engaging research-centered lesson, the third in a series of six, has young archaeologists study the amazing animals of the Cambrian explosion. Working in groups, they profile a breathtaking and odd creature and learn...

Pupils study fossils. They examine samples of specific fossils--including a shark tooth, a brachiopod, and horn coral, among others. They visit corresponding websites and complete a worksheet regarding each of the fossils.

Young scholars explain what a fossil is, learn six dinosaurs and tell one characteristic about each, then describe verbally what a dinosaur might have looked like.

Students study the teeth of living mammals and apply those skills to the interpretation of the diet of extinct animals.

Students gain understanding of how a fossil is formed and why they are so important.  For this fossil lesson students create their own fossils.

Students use fossil range charts to explain relative dating. They graph for ammonites, marine organisms that went extinct at the same time as dinosaurs.

Students study the rocks and fossils associated with the geologic landscape of Iowa. In this rocks and fossils lesson, students examine fossils that would be found in the Iowa landscape that show evidence of marine invertebrates such as...

Second graders examine the formation of fossils and list the different types. They make cast model of a dinosaur fossil. They write about conditions that are necessary for fossils to form and create a model of a buried fossil.

Students explore an interactive computer activity that provides the opportunity to look at features of various groups of animals and determine where an extinct organism might be classified.

Students study the ice age and the causes of it.  In this Ice Age lesson students examine why those animals became extinct and complete activity sheets.

Students study the differences in the Ice Age terminology and what causes them.  In this Ice Age lesson students examine what plants and animals lived during the Ice Age. 

Fourth graders get to invent their own dinosaur! This is done by using a very clever worksheet embedded in the plan. The worksheet leads them through naming their dinosaur by having explanations of the Latin terminology that is used with...

Students explore natural selection and its influence on the populations to fine tune traits and characteristics. The acquisition of traits developed out of need is examined through a game played in class.

Fifth graders examine the fossil footprints of two and four legged dinosaurs. Using this information, they try to determine how the dinosaurs lived their lives. They use their own walking pattern to compare it to the dinosaurs and...

High schoolers classify Archaeopteryx using pictures of actual fossils and scientist representations of how the animal might have looked. They compare Archaeopteryx's characteristics to those of the five extant vertebrate groups to...

Students model a paleontologist's activities. They identify dinosaur bones and reassemble them into a skeleton of an extinct reptile.