Lesson Idea 4: Lesson idea for students to investigate dinosaurs, with a scientific emphasis

Lesson Idea and Outline

The subject of dinosaurs have delighted and intrigued ever since the first fossil evidence was discovered ( in 1677). This theme aims to encourage student interest in prehistoric times and suggest dinosaurs topics for investigation and discussion

Overview

This lesson series is aimed at investigating the age of the dinosaurs. Lesson ideas cover such topics as - different dinosaur species, how they evolved and adapted, possible reasons for their mass extinction, and a look at what present day species the dinosaurs gave rise to. Information provided over this topic series are in the form of worksheets, with relevant activity sheets assigned for student use. Additionally detailed cross-curricular lesson ideas for arts and english are available also.

Objectives

To develop a comprehensive understanding of evolution and with particular focus on our prehistoric ancestors - the dinosaurs. Lessons will investigate dinosaur types, common ancestry, evolution and adaptation, the prehistoric timelines and era's, extinction and disaster theories, and provide a brief glimpse into the scientific genetic basis for the epic movie 'Jurassic Park' and discuss it's real life applications.

Time Required

Minimum of 3 x 1 hour sessions per dinosaur-science lesson plan

Procedures

Favourite Dinosaur types
Introduction to the huge variety of dinosaur species, complete with graphics, statistics and interesting facts.
Follow through with related activity sheets
The Era of Dinosaurs
Explores the era in which dinosaurs ruled the land, drawing attention to differing climate, continental shifts, and investigates what types of flora and fauna were abundant at different era's. Also investigates some of the more popular extinction theories.
Class discussion about the different world exsitant millions of years ago, and what it would have differed from our world. Also discuss extinction (possible link to endangered species and disasters lesson series)
The history of evolution with an emphasis on dinosaurs
A brief overview on past and present evolutionary theories with reference to the founder fathers of evolution. Introduces dinosaur evolution and ancestry
Class discussion on evolution
Jurassic Park
A look at the genetics behind Jurassic Park the movie - and its real-life applications
Class discussion on Jurassic Park - the movie, and further involved discussion on genetic techniques and present day possibilities

Student Presentation Options

Any or all of the following methods could be employed depending on the skill level of students and available technology.

Papiermache model of favourite dinosaur or of favourite dinosaur head (teeth, skull shape etc)
Diarama of prehistoric world - pick different era's to illustrate changing world
Poster or Fact Sheets on different different dinosaur types
Web page
PowerPoint presentation (for example, 1 slide per student or per visual component)
Multimedia presentation using Hyperstudio, Director or Flash.

Extensions

Worksheet 2: Papier Mache Dinosaurs - pick your favourite dinosaur to recreate
Resource 1: Make your own amber fossils
Resource 2: Create your own diarama of the preshistoric worlds for each time period, illustrating the different dinosaur types found and compare how different the era's looked
Resource 3: More in depth study of evolution. Construct evolutionary tree to illustrate lines of evolutionary divergence between species.
Resource 3: A study of the evolution of man

Cross-curricular Options

Arts

Developing a dinosaur character for a Story Book or Cartoon Strip
Papiermache model of favourite dinosaur or of favourite dinosaur head (teeth, skull shape etc)
Diarama of prehistoric world - pick different era's to illustrate changing world

English

Writing Children's Story with a Dinosaur Theme
Writing poetry about dinosaurs, in particulary using alliteration and acrostics techniques

Geography

Investigation into the continental shifts and shape changes that occurred over 200 million years ago, with particular reference to present day continent distribution today
Further discussion and investigation into what evidence is there to support the varying extinction theories?

Science

Chemistry: Discuss and investigate the original core elements that are thought to have given rise to the first cellular life on prehistoric earth.
Physics: Discuss and investigate the elements of the big-bang and other creation theories
Chemistry & Physics: Investigate the use of carbon dating and radioisotopes in estimating age of fossil records.