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Lesson 4- Who are some famous fossil hunters and what are their finds?

Aims:

1.  How can we work in cooperative groups to research fossil hunters?

2.  To research, write, and illustrate out reports.

Motivation:  Read the students the story about  Mary Anning, a young girl who made a remarkable discovery.  The book is called Rare Treasure: Mary Anning and Her Remarkable Discoveries by Don Brown and is available through Amazon.com.  This book should excite the imagination of any child who has ever wanted to be an archaeologist!


 

Procedure:

1.  Divide the class into groups of about 4-5 children.  Tell them they are going to be finding out about some famous archaeologists and what they discovered.  Each group will choose the reporter, the recorder, the illustrator, the leader, and the materials handler.

2.  Each group is to include the following information:

  a.  The name of the archaeologist, when he/she lived, and where the archaeologist worked.

  b.  The type of fossil the archaeologist found, where he/she found it, and its importance.

  c. Each group is to illustrate their writing either by importing pictures from the web or using a drawing program like Kid Pix to display at least two of the archaeologists' discoveries.

  d.  Each group will perform an activity that will show them how an archaeologist works to remove a fossil from the ground (see activities below).

  e.  The report is to be assembled into a nice book, and presented to the class for a culminating activity.

The following websites can be used for information:

http://zoomschool.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinofossils/Paleontologists.shtml

http://library.thinkquest.org/5751/archaeologists.htm

Activities:

1.  Play archeological games on this website: http://kidsdigreed.com/games.asp

2.  See what it is like to dig fossil fragments from the ground.  Do the following experiment:

Problem:  How difficult it is for archaeologists to excavate fossils from the earth?

Hypothesis:  We think special tools are needed to excavate fossils from the earth.

Materials:  Chocolate chips cookies, paper plates, toothpicks

Procedure:   1.  Distribute plates, toothpicks, and a chocolate chip cookie to each child.  2.  Explain that the chocolate chips are the fossils and they are buried in the earth (cookie dough).  3. Using the toothpick, they are to try and excavate the fossil from the earth.  4.  Have the children see how many whole chips (fossils) they can collect.

Observations:  Children can see that is is quite difficult to excavate their "fossils" without breaking them.

Conclusions:  An archeologists' work is extremely painstaking and tedious.  Often the fossils we are trying to preserve break in the excavation process.

3.  Become a virtual paleontologist and play the Age of the Megafauna Pitfall Game.  Click on this link:  http://abc.net.au/ozfossil/megafauna/game/default.htm
Follow Up:  Have the students assess their unit by using the rubrics.

Use the following links to navigate through FOSSILS!