Lesson 5

Dinosaur Time Capsule

Objectives:

• Students will conduct research to complete a time line of prehistoric life.

• Students will discover what a time line is.

• Students will demonstrate the ability to use approximate scale in developing a time line.

• Students will identify names of prehistoric life and give examples of different early life forms.

• Students will demonstrate the ability to plan and implement a project cooperatively.

Time Required:

• 3 - one hour sessions

Vocabulary:

• prehistoric - existing in times before written history

• timeline

• amphibian - any animal that is able to live both on land and in water

• bird - any of a class of warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate animals
  with the body covered with feathers and the forelimbs modified as
  wings

• insect - small invertebrate animals with the body clearly
  divided into a head, thorax, and abdomen, with three pairs of
  jointed legs, and usually with one or two pairs of wings 

• mammal - any of a class of warm-blooded vertebrates that include human
  beings and all other animals that nourish their young with milk
  produced by mammary glands and have the skin usually more or
  less covered with hair 

• reptile - any of a group of cold-blooded air-breathing vertebrates (as
  snakes, lizards, turtles, and alligators) that usually lay eggs and
  have skin covered with scales or bony plates 

• invertebrate - lacking a backbone

• vertebrate - having a backbone

• jellyfish - any of numerous free-swimming coelenterate animals that have a jellylike, saucer-shaped, and usually nearly transparent body

• trilobite - any of a group of extinct invertebrate animals that lived in
  Paleozoic seas, have a body composed of segments and divided
  lengthwise along the back into three parts, and are classified as
  arthropods 

Materials:

• The Golden Book Encyclopedia CD-Rom

• Automatic feed computer paper (about fifteen connected sheets per group)

• Pictures of early invertebrates, sponges, jellyfish, worms, crustaceans, trilobites, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals

• Pencils and crayons

• Yardsticks and rulers

Note:  You may prepare the students' timelines ahead of time by doing the following:  draw a line the length of the connected sheets of paper.

Procedures:

• Brainstorm and discuss with students about what the Earth looked like millions of years ago before there were any people on it.

• Explain to students that they are going to explore prehistoric life by using the Golden Book Encyclopedia CD-Rom program and they are going to make a timeline.

• Explain and discuss what a timeline is and make a timeline of anything of your choice (for example, your life or one their lives, events in a year, events in a day, etc.) with students so they grasp the idea of a timeline.

• Write the following words on a chart paper or chalkboard:  early invertebrates, sponges, jellyfish, worms, and crustaceans, trilobites, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals

• Show pictures of the items listed.  Tell the students that they will need to find each of the categories in the animals, prehistoric article in the Golden Book Encyclopedia program and place the categories in the correct positions on their timelines.

• Divide the class into groups of three.

• Distribute materials for students to use in completing the timelines.

• Have students use the ABC's path in the Golden Book Encyclopedia program to the letter A and then to the animals, prehistoric article.

• Have students read or listen to the article and write the name of each animal category listed on the chart in the proper position on the time line.  For example, some invertebrates lived in the oceans 1,300 million years ago.  Have students note this on their time lines.  Since nobody knows what early invertebrates looked like, students can be imaginative and draw pictures of what the invertebrates may have looked like.

• Have students continue reading the article and information on vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.  Every time they make an entry on their timelines, they should draw a picture of that type of animal.

• Students will need to refer to the other articles in the encyclopedia to complete and enhance their timelines.  Have students use the ABC's path to go to the appropriate letter and then to the amphibian, reptile, birds of the past, mammals of the past, and earth history articles.  Have students read or listen to these articles to find additional information for their time lines.

• Discuss the short time that human beings have inhabited the Earth compared to other animals.

• Once students have completed their time lines have each group share their timelines with the class.

• Students can make an online timeline at Teach-nology.

Evaluation:

• The timelines created by the students will serve as the assessment.

Extension Activities:

• Have students use the Internet and research the different eras in which the prehistoric animals lived such as the Mesozoic Era, the Paleozoic Era, the Jurassic Period, etc. Visit the Dinosaur Database.

• Creative Writing:  If you could go back in time to any of the periods, which one would you choose to visit?  Write a story about your trip using  a Word Processor.  Tell how you think the Earth looked, what kinds of plants and animals you would see, and where you might find shelter.  Make up a title for your story.

Home Learning:

• Students will choose one the animals on their timelines and visit the library or use the Internet and research the animal.  Students will prepare an oral report on the animal they chose.

Note:  If you do not have access to the Golden Book Encyclopedia CD-Rom, any encyclopedia or Internet encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia Online will work as well.

Field Trips:

Go on a virtual field trip to watch a dinosaur egg hatch at Dinosaur Eggs

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