Lesson Plans

Students will recreate the Florissant Formation stratigraphic column (or any rock formation you would like to use) using food materials. Each food item will represent a specific layer of the Florissant Formation (or rock formation).

Students will conduct research on extinct species annotating specified information. Students will then locate where on the geologic timeline each species fits. From there, students will create their own geologic timeline trail using their pictures.

Students will become familiarized with fossils that have been uncovered in Florissant Fossil Beds from the Eocene and Quaternary. They will select a certain extinct species and make a sketch on a Popsicle stick canvas. After shuffling their Popsicle stick fossil, they will then hide the sticks around a room and have someone else find and "excavate" the Popsicle stick fossil and attempt to put it back together. Best done with a partner to exchange fossils to find and put together.

Students will re-create scientific studies done by paleobotanists analyzing data from fossil plants found at Florissant Fossil Beds to draw conclusions about the paleoclimate 34 million years ago. In this activity, students will identify fossil plant species by their leaves, review data on the growing conditions of their nearest modern plant relatives, and compare as many species as possible to determine the range of temperature and precipitation that the fossil plant community can live in.

Students will create a play dough model of the Earth's layers. They will then cut it in half to observe the layers in cross section to see how the planet is structured. To end they will use a clear straw to take a "core" sample to understand how scientists observe the upper layers of Earth.

Students will recreate the Florissant Formation stratigraphic column using food materials. Each food item will represent a specific layer of the Florissant Formation.

Students will make their own interpretive map of the Florissant valley using either watercolor paint or whatever else is available to them. The students will create their maps using a video filmed at the overlook point on the geologic trail to provide them with a large view of the valley. They will use Arthur Lakes’ 1878 watercolor map of the Florissant valley as a reference.

Many of the fossils found in the paper shales of the Florissant Formation formed through a process called carbonization. Students will get the chance to make compressions of plants in this activity and may use paint to mimic the carbonization process.

Plate tectonics allows for the development of mountains and valleys. Students will use a towel and index card "blocks" to show how mountains and valleys form using compressional and extensional forces.

Students will learn to identify the seven continents of Earth. They will also create their own supercontinent by using continental shape and fossil evidence to fit the continent cutout pieces like a puzzle. They will then be shown maps of reconstructed Pangea and try to recreate it using their cutout pieces.