Digging Into Science Lessons

Lessons
Life Has A History (Student worksheet provided)
Adopt-A-Dinosaur (Project worksheets provided)
Dino-Mite Web Quest (Student worksheet provided)
Vocab Challenge Cards (Worksheets provided)
Other Lessons
Online Resources

Visit the Project Overview page or take a look at the Digging Into Science photo page!

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Life Has A History (T. Tomm, Havana Junior High, Havana, IL)
Students explored the Life Has A History web site to explore the geologic time scale, fossils, and dinosaurs. The worksheet was designed for the Level 2 tour. The site also provides pre/posts tests, scavenger hunts, and focus questions on the assessment page of the Teacher's Guide page.

Lesson Worksheet: Life Has A History (pdf)
Note: Explore the resources listed in the last section of this page for more lessons and activities for geologic time!

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Adopt-A-Dinosaur (T. Tomm, Havana Junior High, Havana, IL)
For this lesson, students adopt a dinosaur and search the web for facts about their critter. Using the information collected, they complete the fact sheet and provide a drawing of their dinosaur. To provide an added challenge, require students to create one question for their classmates from information provided by their project. Use the questions to create a Dinosaur Scavenger Hunt and allow the students to explore all the projects to discover the answers.

Project Worksheets: Adopt-A-Dinosaur Fact Sheet (pdf), Dinosaur Project Description (pdf) and Dinosaur Project Grade Sheet (pdf)

 

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Dino-Mite Web Quest (T. Tomm, Havana Junior High, Havana, IL)
For this project, I divided my science classes into research teams. Each team was responsible for researching a specific family of dinosaurs (examples, foods, time periods, etc.) and creating a presentation for their classmates. They were also challenged to develop lesson worksheets.

Project Worksheets: Dino-Mite Web Quest Info Page (pdf)

 

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Vocab Challenge Cards (T. Tomm, Havana Junior High, Havana, IL)
I prepare several sets of these cards to give students a chance to review important terms from the dinosaur and fossil unit. I copy the cards on one side of cover stock and the answers (or letters to match) on the other. Once the students have matched all the cards, they can check their work by turning the cards over. If the letters match, they are correct. If not, they know the ones they need to study! I also provide stopwatches for them to time their trials. Students who are able to match all the cards in a specific amount of time (usually under 1 minute) get to add their name to a Vocab Challenge star and receive a treat.

Worksheets: Dinosaur Vocab Challenge Cards (pdf) and Dinosaur Vocab Challenge Answers (pdf)

 

Dinosaur Bingo Games (T. Tomm, Havana Junior High, Havana, IL)
I created these games to help students review terms and lessons we have studied during the dinosaur unit. The first game - The Name Game - challenges students to identify dinosaurs by the meaning of their names. Students will also find some great information on the ZOOM Dinosaurs site. The second game is a review game with terms from our dinosaur unit.

Worksheets: The Name Game (pdf) and World of Dinosaurs (pdf) - Both downloads contain game cards and a page of clues.

Also available ...
Eyewitness Dinosaur Video Quiz (pdf)
Dinosaur Jokes Page (pdf)
Brain POP - Dinosaur Movie Worksheet (pdf)

 

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Online Resources

CLN Dinosaur Theme Page - An assortment of links to online lesson plans for dinosaurs and paleontology.

Discovery School - Try Dinosaur Detectives or When Dinosaurs Ruled from the middle school lesson plan area.

Kentucky Earth Science Education Network - This site provides lessons and links to online resources for earth science educators! They also offer links for dinosaurs, dinosaur extinction, geologic time, and fossils!

Learning From The Fossil Record - A great site for lesson ideas and other online resources! Don't miss this one!

Middle School Lessons - This site offers a few lessons for dinosaurs in the Earth Science section, such as Finding and Dating Dinosaurs and Assembling A Dinosaur.

Project Exploration - Bring the world of paleontology alive with a visit to this site. They offer an area for kids, a variety of educational services and programs, and lesson ideas at Teacher Tracks!

Proteacher - Dinosaurs - A large collection of links to online resources for K-8!

Scholastic Dinosaurs - An assortment of neat ideas for dinosaurs with a teacher's guide!

UCMP Geologic Time - Visit this area of the UCMP website for great lessons & worksheets investigating the history of the Earth.
Also check out It's About Time for an assortment of ideas to explore geologic time, such as a Geologic Clock!

ZOOM Dinosaurs - A great site for dinosaur information and printouts!

Also visit the Lesson Plan page for a list of links to online lessons for Earth Science!