Process:

(Days 1, 2, 3 & 4) Students will be divided into teams of 4

Part 1: (The Chief Paleontologist has surveyed Oakland Park and marked waypoints on GPS units where fossil evidence has been discovered.)

Day 1: Student Paleontologist teams will use the GPS unit and follow it to 4 seperate waypoints in Oakland Park.

At each waypoint the team will discover one fossil, (each team will have 4 fossils when done)

Once the student teams have found their fossil evidence (actual fossils, observations, pictures and drawings) they will return to the classroom.

Part 2:

Day 2: Each student will take the role of a paleontologists. They will pick one fossil and become an expert on that fossil.

Each expert will be grouped with students who have chosen the same fossil.

During their research the expert groups will work to answer the questions below (make sure you keep a list of your resources as you research.)

What are the types of fossils and how are they formed? (Include a visual for each type of fossil in your exhibit)

• Index Fossils: (EarthScience.org, Enchanted Learning, USGS.org, Wikipedia, Absolute Astronomy )
• Fossils: (The Learning Zone- Fossils , Fossil History, Fossil Types- Berkeley, Fossil Types- molds, cast , Windows to the Universe- fossils,)

Days 3 & 4:

What type of fossils did you find in the park? Create a snapshot of what life was like during the time that the organism survived on earth. Include an original photograph, observations and collected data on your fossil. Answer the following questions about your park fossil: Click here for Park Fossil Identities.

• What is the origin of the park fossil? Are any of our fossils index fossils? If yes, why would this be important?

• What type of organism is it?

• When did it live?

• What other organisms lived during this time?

• What was the climate like during this time?

   

Expert groups will create media exhibiting the above information to be used with their original teams.

Part 3: (Day 5)The original teams regroup: Each student paleontologist will share the media created in expert groups and discuss how they can use these products to create their exhibit of Oakland Park's natural history.

Part 4: (Days 6, 7, & 8)

The original student teams will research the following questions to provide a background of how scientists date and use fossils to determine the history of the earth. (So everyone can understand the importance of developing fossil history.)

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How do scientists determine the age of the earth?

• superposition,Stratiagraphy , Law of Superposition ,
• radioactive dating (half-life), radiometric dating, The Age,of Fossils, Fossil Age:

What can we learn by studying fossils?

• geologic time scale Age Indicators, Paleontology, Berkeley-Geologic Time , The Time Machine , Enchanted Learning
• theories of mass extinction, changes in Earth's history Mass extinctions, Berekely Extinctions
• changes in climate, (ice ages or warming periods) , plate movement Environmental clues , Clues to the Past, Fossil Clues,

Create a timeline for your fossils. (Put them in the order in which they lived) Then discuss how life changed from one time period to the next and what caused life to change.

Include this information in your media exhibit as a rationale for developing and studying the fossil record.

Part 5: (Days 9 & 10)

Students will brainstorm the pros and cons of the park in both scenarios: as a gated retirement community or as a community park and include it in their project.

The media exhibits will be saved to a jump drive or hard drive and then shared with the learning community.

go on to the Evaluation..........

Introduction------ Task----- Process------Park Fossil Identities----- Evaluation------Student Scoring Checklist----- Conclusion------ Credits----- For Teachers

fossil types

Fossils & Plate Tectonics Learning Goals