Re: paleonet Jr High Fossil Activity?

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You might find some ideas at the following web site.

http://www.usgs.gov/education/

I am involved in Scouting and volunteer at my son's school a lot and find
that teaching from the "fossil detective" stand point works well.  I give a
brief introduction about how discovering the history of the earth is like
being a detective - you have to find the clues and then know how to
interpret them.  One interesting exercise is to give them "mystery" trays
with collections from a particular environment (these could be modern or
fossil) - I use samples from my own work in Florida.  On a "reference table
are a few "known" items  - for example a snail that lives on mangrove
roots.  These samples are labeled and have a card explaining their
environment.  The kids then match the clues in their "mystery" sample with
the known items and come up with an interpretation of their environment.
Sometimes I even given them a modern map and have them locate where their
sample might have come from.

This is fun, often leads to stimulated debates about how "mixed" signals
might occur, and gives them a realistic experience on how paleoecology
works.  The exercise can be modified if you want to stress the
stratigraphic use of fossils - have the reference items identify ranges and
have them place their samples stratigraphically.

Hope this helps!
_______________________
G. Lynn Brewster-Wingard
Geologist, EESP Team
MS 926A National Center
US Geological Survey
Reston, VA  20192
Office: 703-648-5352
http://sofia.usgs.gov/flaecohist/
FAX: 703-648-6953