Fossils and Dinosaurs

Imagine you are working in the school garden helping your classmates plant vegetables. While digging in the soil you find a rock that has an impression of a fish skeleton. After showing the rock to your teacher, she asks if you know how it was formed and how many years ago did this happen.

Your task is to research the properties of fossils and how fossils are formed. Through this WebQuest you will learn some of what paleontologists, scientists who study fossils, have discovered about fossils.

Day 1. Click on this link to BrainPOP Jr. http://www.brainpopjr.com/science/land/fossils/preview.weml

Go to Word Wall and review the vocabulary words.

Print notebook questions.

Watch the fossil video and record your answers in the notebook

Go to Draw About It, draw a picture of a fossil that is not a dinosaur and then print.

Day 2. Click on the following link and print the Fossil Record Sheet.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaqLy0DDDV1hZGczdHBkdmRfNWZ3cXFkYmR2&hl=en

Click on this link to take a tour of the fossil record.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/fossil/index.html

Draw and label pictures of three different types of fossils, animal, plant, and insect.

Day 3. Click on this link to view real paleontologists at work.

 http://dsc.discovery.com/search/results.html?query=fossils

How do fossils get their color?

Click on this link to go on a fossil hunt.

http://www.scholastic.com/dinosaurcove/

Day 4. Make a prediction.  What kind of environment is best for fossil formation?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/dinosaurs/

Based on your observations, was your prediction correct?

What happens to dead animals left in wide open spaces?

Click here to go on a virtual dinosaur dig.

http://paleobiology.si.edu/dinosaurs/interactives/dig/dinodig.html

Day 5. Go back to BrainPOP Jr. http://www.brainpopjr.com/science/land/fossils/preview.weml

Click on Game, How a Fossil is Formed. Put the pictures in order. Do the same on your Fossil Record Sheet.

Click on Talk About It, Tell how the animal lived based on what you know about fossils and then print.