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Teaching Guide: Fossil Finders
Join our team as we use evidence from fossils to understand what environments were like long ago. Students will be sent out in groups to uncover fossils. The excavators dig, fossil experts will identify the fossils, and ecologists will identify the environment the organism once lived in. The group will use this fossil evidence to infer what the dig location was like in the past.
Pre Activities:
• Vocabulary Review- paleontologist, ecologist, fossil, evidence, habitat, ecosystem, marine, sedimentary rock, minerals, characteristics, organisms
• Review regions of South Carolina
Before the Program Instructions:
• Print out fossil packet and assemble (staple each corner and then cut out) • Print 8 Habitat Expert sheets and 8 Fossils Expert Sheets (2 for each group)
Instructions for Day of the Program:
• Arrange students in 4 groups • Each group and student will ideally be visible from the webcam. • Distribute pages face down to each group • Assign group roles- Reporter (1 per group), Habitat Experts (1-3 per group), Fossil
Experts (1-3 per group), Excavators (1-3 per group)
Post Activity
• Trilobite Mold and Cast Lesson- This PowerPoint with videos will provide an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge to fossils found in Morocco.
• Press Release- Have groups create a press release on the findings from the lesson • Fossil Expert Sheet- Allow students to explore the additional fossils found in the
Carolinas to gather evidence about what the habitat of the Carolinas was like long ago.
• Career Connection
o Paleontologist o Ecologist
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Habitats Description Water Plant Life
(examples) Animal Life (examples)
Desert Dry areas, with lots of sand, very hot during the day and very cold at night.
Small amount of rainfall
Cactus Lizards, scorpions, rabbits
Forest Area covered with different kinds of trees
Medium amount of rainfall
Trees with leaves or needles, shrubs, grasses, ferns
Birds, foxes, rabbits, bears, snakes, deer
Grasslands Area of fertile (healthy) soil covered in tall grasses
Medium amount of rainfall
Grasses Prairie dogs, grasshoppers, bison (large, cow-like animals)
Oceans Large bodies of salt water that surround a continent
Salty Seaweed and plankton (tiny, floating plants and animals)
Large whales, Megladon sharks, turtles, other sharks, jelly fish (sea jellies), crabs, coral, dolphin
Habitat Expert
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Geo
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Atlantic OceanOuter Coastal Plain
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Geo
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No
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AD
CB
5 millio
n years5 m
illio
n ye
ars
5 millio
n years5 m
illio
n ye
ars
FOSS
IL
CB
DA
10 m
illio
n ye
ars
10 m
illion years10
mill
ion
year
s10
millio
n years
CB
DA
15 m
illio
n ye
ars
15 m
illio
n ye
ars
15 millio
n years
15 millio
n years
FOSSIL
CB
DA
20 m
illio
n ye
ars
20 m
illion years20
mill
ion
year
s
20 m
illion years
FOSSIL
FOSS
IL
CB
DA
25 m
illio
n ye
ars
25 millio
n years25 m
illio
n ye
ars
25 millio
n yearsFO
SSIL
CB
DA
