Dinosaur detectives
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/
dinosaurdetectives/
A lesson plan for Grade 8 Science
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- 8
- Subjects
- science (biology and life science, natural history)
- Provider
- Discovery Channel School
Legal
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In this lesson, students learn that discoveries about dinosaurs have a long history and that each paleontologist adds his or her work to a body of fossil evidence used to support theories about dinosaurs. Students will form groups to conduct research about a particular paleontologist and present their findings to the class.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- understand that discoveries about dinosaurs have a long history and that each paleontologist adds his or her work to a body of fossil evidence used to support theories about dinosaurs;
- find out that paleontologists often support one theory over another until additional fossil evidence either confirms or disproves the theory; and
- understand that paleontologists can learn more about dinosaurs through new scientific techniques.
They will conduct research about a particular paleontologist and answer the following questions:
- What is the paleontologist’s name?
- When did he or she live?
- Where did they carry out their fieldwork?
- What are their major discoveries?
- What theories do (or did) they support?
- What technology aided them in their work?
Students will present their findings to the class in the first person, taking on the persona of their selected paleontologists.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Science (2005)
Grade 8
- Goal 1: The learner will design and conduct investigations to demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry.
- Objective 1.08: Use oral and written language to:
- Communicate findings.
- Defend conclusions of scientific investigations.
- Describe strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, and/or data.
- Objective 1.09: Use technologies and information systems to:
- Research.
- Gather and analyze data.
- Visualize data.
- Disseminate findings to others.
- Objective 1.10: Analyze and evaluate information from a scientifically literate viewpoint by reading, hearing, and/or viewing:
- Scientific text.
- Articles.
- Events in the popular press.
- Objective 1.08: Use oral and written language to:
- Goal 5: The learner will conduct investigations and utilize appropriate technologies and information systems to build an understanding of evidence of evolution in organisms and landforms.
- Objective 5.01: Interpret ways in which rocks, fossils, and ice cores record Earth's geologic history and the evolution of life including:
- Geologic Time Scale.
- Index Fossils.
- Law of Superposition.
- Unconformity.
- Evidence for climate change.
- Extinction of species.
- Catastrophic events.
- Objective 5.02: Correlate evolutionary theories and processes:
- Biological.
- Geological.
- Technological.
- Objective 5.03: Examine evidence that the geologic evolution has had significant global impact including:
- Distribution of living things.
- Major geological events.
- Mechanical and chemical weathering.
- Objective 5.01: Interpret ways in which rocks, fossils, and ice cores record Earth's geologic history and the evolution of life including:
