Last updated: July 23, 2024
Lesson Plan
Ancient Creatures on the Knob Creek Farm: Fossils
Fossils are all around you!
National Park Service
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Kentucky
Science
4-ESS1-1. Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time. - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience.
Essential Question
How do fossils show a change in landscape over time?
What are the different types of fossils and how are they made?
Objective
Students will understand how fossils show changes in a landscape over time.
Students will understand how are fossils are made.
Background
Different types of fossils and how they are created (mold, cast, body, trace)
How do fossils show a change in landscape over time?
Preparation
Find pictures or examples of different types of fossils.
Lesson Hook/Preview
Zoom in on pictures of fossils so that students are not able to tell what the image really is and have students make a guess as to what they are seeing. Then, zoom out so they can see the full image or object to determine what made the fossil.
Procedure
Discuss the different types of fossils – trace, mold/cast, body- and how they are created.
Use modeling clay to create the different types of fossils.
Discuss how a fossil of a marine life animal found in the desert demonstrates a change in the land over time. That area of land once was covered by water in order for a fossil of a marine animal to be located in that area.
Share with students they will be exploring part of the creek at Lincoln’s Knob Creek farm on their upcoming field trip to discover and observe different types of fossils. Students will need to be able to identify the type of fossils they observe and what type of organism created the fossil.
Vocabulary
Fossils-remains of a plant or animal from long ago left in the earth as an imprint, cast, or trace.
Assessment Materials
WritingProvide students with pictures of different types of fossils and have students name them.
Provide students with a scenario of a specific fossil found in an unlikely environment such as a fish fossil in a desert. Ask students to provide written explanation as to how this shows a change in the environment over time.
Students can label the various types of fossils or provide a description for each type of fossil. Students can describe how fossils can show a change in the environment over time.
Provide students with pictures of different types of fossils and have students name them.
Related Lessons or Education Materials
Meets Kentucky 4th grade science standards. This lesson was created by Kentucky teachers as a part of the History and Science Explore Project.