Curated OER
Cooking with the Sun!
Learners access prior knowledge of solar energy and understand that solar energy produces heat. In this solar cooker activity, students complete grade appropriate experiments using the heat of the sun. Learners complete a worksheet on...
Curated OER
Archaeology Volunteers
In this archaeology worksheet, students read about 4 tasks involving archaeologists. Students also answer 3 questions about the reading.
Curated OER
Absolute Ages of Rocks
In this age of rocks worksheet, students answer five matching questions about terms related to the decay of atoms. They use a strip of paper to simulate half life of atoms and determine the total amount of time it took to deplete the paper.
Curated OER
Carbon Cycle Game
In this carbon cycle lesson, middle schoolers review the carbon cycle and visit stations in the room where they experience every phase in the carbon cycle. Students journal about their journey through the cycle and brainstorm ways...
Curated OER
The Moon Book
In this moon worksheet, students read the book The Moon Book and list facts about the moon and draw eclipses. Students list 10 facts and draw 3 kinds of eclipses.
Curated OER
Archaeology and Prehistoric Native Americans
Young scholars study the terms paleontology and archaeology and examine how they can help us learn about prehistoric Native Iowans. In this archaeology lesson plan students discuss these terms and view a video on Native...
Curated OER
Dell House Dig
Students experience an archaeological dig exploring off the shore of Black Hawk Island and Wisconsin River. They study in the same place where the infamous Dell House once stood. Dell House and its historical significance is reviewed...
Curated OER
Build-A-Horseshoe Crab
Students discover many facts about horseshoe crabs. Students identify the main body parts of horseshoe crab. They explore the habits of the horseshoe crab and their importances to the ecosystem. Adaptations for younger students are...
Curated OER
Absolute Ages of Rocks
In this ages of rock worksheet, students review the processes involved with determining the ages of rocks which includes the radioactive decay of carbon-14. This worksheet has 5 matching and 5 short answer questions.
Curated OER
The Laughing Leaf
Students demonstrate real-object writing. They discuss a leaf that has human attributes, and using a real leaf write a story about a leaf that tells them a joke, and create an illustration of themselves and their leaf.
Curated OER
Not Just For A Baby's Bottom
Eighth graders investigate the presence of talc in the geologic record. The different characteristics of talc is covered. The lesson includes background information for the teacher.
![Arizona Sonora Desert Museum: Make a Fossil Mold and Cast [Pdf] Lesson Plan](http://content.lessonplanet.com/resources/thumbnails/410007/large/bwluav9tywdpy2symdiwmduymc0xotaxmy0xywl5yxlulmpwzw.jpg?1589984663 "Arizona Sonora Desert Museum: Make a Fossil Mold and Cast [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
Other
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum: Make a Fossil Mold and Cast [Pdf]
For this activity, students will make a fake fossil cast using plaster of Paris. A second activity on comprehending the size of dinosaurs is included in this file.
American Geosciences Institute
American Geological Institute: Evolution and the Fossil Record
The American Geological Institute has done an excellent job of defining and explaining evolution in this online booklet. Darwin, fossils, natural selection, and change over time are some of the concepts that are covered. Make sure to see...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Do We Know What Color Dinosaurs Were?
The microraptor was a four-winged carnivorous dinosaur with iridescent black feathers. But if our information about this dinosaur comes from fossils, how can we be certain about its color? Len Bloch shows how making sense of the evidence...
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: Paleont O Logy: The Big Dig
This colorful and inviting resource houses tons of paleontology activities to explore. Play the Layers of Time puzzle game, create your own make-believe dig site by burying chicken bones in plaster of Paris, learn how to draw dinosaurs,...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Building a Dinosaur From a Chicken
Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues, but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking...
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: Gobi Expeditions O Logy Card
Flip this interactive card to start learning about Gobi Expeditions. Answer multiple-choice and fact-or-fiction questions and review some fast facts about this expedition where paleontologists and scientists gather to collect Cretaceous...
Indiana University
Ensi: The Great Fossil Find Lesson Plan
Students hear a story as they "find" bones that you have put in an envelope for them. Their job is to begin assembling the bones as best they can. The students will invariably come up with different configurations--just like scientists...
Children's Museum
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis: Dinosphere
Learners will learn how dinosaurs were classified, compare shapes and sizes, and explore how paleontologists make discoveries. They'll analyze how dinosaurs interacted back in the day, and make their own dinosaur drawings and a fossil cast.
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: Fighting Dinos: New Discoveries
A virtual investigation surmising how two fighting dinosaurs died in the Gobi Desert.
Other
Travel Montana: Montana Kids: Maiasaur
The Maiasaur is a kind of hadrosaur, a dinosaur that lived in the Upper Cretaceous Period. Much of what is known about the Maiasaur came from the fossils found at Egg Mountain in Montana. Jack Horner, a well known paleontologist,...
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: Stuff to Do: Buried Bones
A how-to science project with instructions to make a complete dinosaur bone dig site burying chicken bones in plaster of Paris. Click on the starred words to learn more about the topic.
Curated OER
Science Kids: Science Images: Abrictosaurus
This drawing shows the possible appearance of Abrictosaurus, a dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period (around 200 million years ago) that weighed around 45 kg (100 lb) and reached around 1.2 m (4 ft) in length. The fossil remains of...