Our class has been doing a PBL called Science Court. Students are learning about what a fossil is, where you might find them and how finding one might affect the world and people around you. This year we are looking through the lens of how things affect the environment around them. Students discussed that fossils tell us where animals and plants were; where they traveled; what they ate; what catastrophic event might have happened and how digging up fossils changes the world.
Science Court started off with someone building a new restaurant. A man found a fossil so they had to go to science court and decide if it is a real fossil and if they needed to stop digging. Students read parts from the characters and learned about what a fossil was. We then went and made a fossil and talked about petrification. Ask your child what being a Paleontologist is and representation and petrification are.
Students discussed why they thought we would use a sponge to represent a bone. We then used salt, sand and water to help us understand the process of petrification. Students documented their experiment in their activity journal so they would be able to reproduce it again if they chose to.
Science Court started off with someone building a new restaurant. A man found a fossil so they had to go to science court and decide if it is a real fossil and if they needed to stop digging. Students read parts from the characters and learned about what a fossil was. We then went and made a fossil and talked about petrification. Ask your child what being a Paleontologist is and representation and petrification are.
Students discussed why they thought we would use a sponge to represent a bone. We then used salt, sand and water to help us understand the process of petrification. Students documented their experiment in their activity journal so they would be able to reproduce it again if they chose to.
Next we watched the next part of science court. They discussed what types of fossils are and if they are real or not. Students went outside and picked an object to cast. Afterwards we went down to the lab and followed directions to make our own molds. Students had to double the recipe, change tablespoons to teaspoons and oz, measure and follow the steps in order to make their mold.
We then studied fossils from the Colorado School of Mines. Students wrote predictions, observations of 3 fossils and conclusions of what they learned from them. They also made some amazing diagrams.
After learning about imprint, mold and petrification, we went back to our 2 fossils we created. We compared and contrasted our fossils, wrote predictions, observations and conclusions about our findings. It was a perfect way to end our unit on what a fossil is. Please take the time to discuss what your child has learned and use the vocabulary listed throughout this lesson.