RE: paleonet Jr High Fossil Activity?

["David Kopaska-Merkel" <davidkm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Possibilities that I have tried or heard of others doing include:

 

1. Have them make fossils, or trace fossils, with plaster of Paris

2. Have them use analogies to living organisms to reconstruct the possible ancient ecosystem, which they would then illustrate.

3. For younger kids: a fossil "dig" in a sand box.

4. If you can come up with a real research project they can help with, this really gets kids interested. The mollusk-boring study of Patricia Kelley and others involved field work and younger material, but you might be able to come up with something similar.

 

Just a few thoughts that might be of some help.

 

David

David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Geological Survey of Alabama
P.O. Box 869999
Tuscaloosa AL 35486-6999
(205) 349-2852
fax 349-2861
www.gsa.state.al.us

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-----Original Message-----
From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk]On Behalf Of Roy Plotnick
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 9:33 AM
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject: Re: paleonet Jr High Fossil Activity?

Two things:
1.  Have you checked out the PS book "Learning from the Fossil Record?"  It is available online at the PS website.
 2. I work with 5th graders in Oak Park Illinois as part of a district program called Global Village, which involves volunteer scientists "adopting" a class for the year.  I make multiple classroom visits, as well as two field trips, on to the Field Museum.  As part of the classroom activities,  we purchased basic fossil kits from Wards.  I then prepared handouts, based on material from the UCMP website,  to guide the kid's study of the fossils.  We also have 1 1/2 hr.  program for younger grades, called the "Young Scientist Conference."  My portion focuses on Mazon Creek. I have them do a "fossil scavenger hunt," , make rubbings, and prepare a collage/reconstruction.
Hope this helps -Roy

Roy E. Plotnick
Professor
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
845 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, IL 60607
plotnick@uic.edu
office phone: 312-996-2111     fax: 312-413-2279
lab phone: 312-355-1342
web page: http://www.uic.edu/~plotnick/plotnick.htm
"The scientific celebrities, forgetting their molluscs and glacial  periods, gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to oysters  and ices with characteristic energy.." -Little Women, Louisa  May Alcott