Lesson Title: Fossil Characteristics
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Time Required: Fifty minutes
Unit Title: Fossils
Unit Connections:
Big Ideas:
 Scientists analyze fossils to determine behaviors and the environment in which the
organism lived.
 By analyzing fossil characteristics scientists can determine change over time.
 Physical and behavioral characteristics help an organism to survive.
Essential Questions:
 What are the characteristics of a fossil?
 How do certain characteristics determine an organism’s survival?
 How can change over time be determined by analyzing the fossil record?
Key Content Learning:
 The students will gain knowledge about how behavioral and physical characteristics
can help scientists to determine the environment in which the organism lived, as well
as, how that organism has changed over time and possibly adapted to its
surroundings.
Framing the Lesson:
Keywords:
 Paleontologist
Characteristics
Environmental conditions
Focus Question(s):
 How do scientists go about analyzing fossils?
 What clues do the characteristics of a fossil provide for unlocking the past?
 How can scientists compare the past fossil record to similar organisms today and
what information does this reveal?
Learning Outcomes:
 The students will understand the importance of fossil characteristics in determining
the past.
 The students will be able to analyze past and recent skeletal remains of similar
organisms and be able to compare the differences.
 The students will be able to write and draw an organism of the past and describe the
characteristics of it and why it is important to its survival.
Standards and Benchmarks:
 E.ST.04.32 Compare and contrast life forms found in fossils and organisms that exist
today.
 L.EV.05.12 Describe the physical characteristics (traits) of organisms that help them
survive in their environment.
 L.EV.05.13 Describe how fossils provide evidence about how living things and
environmental conditions have changed.
 S.IP.05.11 Generate scientific questions based on observations, investigations, and
research.
 3-5.CT.2. use information and communication technology tools (e.g., calculators,
probes, videos, DVDs, educational software) to collect, organize, and evaluate
information to assist with solving problems
Differentiation to meet needs of ALL learners:
 Verbal/Linguistic: Student participation in class discussion and the sharing of analysis
with classmates.
 Visual/Spatial: Photos analysis of dinosaur fossils.
 Interpersonal: Small groups working together to share ideas about fossils.
 Kinesthetic:
 Auditory: Listening to other classmate’s ideas and participating in class discussion.
Technology Integration:
 Students will have the opportunity to participate in some gaming which enhances their
learning of fossils and their environment by grouping and playing the various games from
the teacher selected web site listed in the resource section of lesson.
 Power point presentation comparing fossils. Students will be using these power point
images to determine what characteristics helped the fossilized animals survive and what
their environment may have been like.
Integration of the Arts:
 Students will draw a picture to represent and animal in its environment to show the
necessity for certain characteristics needed in order to survive.
Teaching the Lesson:
Lesson Launch:
 Show the students a photo of a horse fossil and the skeleton of a modern horse. Begin
the discussion by asking the students what similarities and differences they see
between the two photos.
 Do the same for the megladon and shark skeletons and teeth.
o Have the student reflect on why the megladon is so much larger than the shark
today. What does the overall size tell us about the environment in which the
megladon lived?
o The students should begin to understand that the organisms have adapted
themselves to fit into the environment. Ask them what they think would
happen to the megladon if it were half the size it was.
Learning Tasks:
 Place several photos of dinosaur fossils at different learning centers around the room.
Provide photo only with no information at this time.
 The students will be divided into small groups of three. Each group will be at a
learning station with different photos of fossil skeletons of dinosaurs. The groups will
discuss what they feel are important characteristics of each dinosaur and how the
dinosaur may have used its unique characteristic to survive in its environment.
 The students will be filling out the worksheet provided as they go from one learning
center to another. The teacher should also be wandering from center to center and
engage the students to find out their thinking on the photos.
 As the students circulate from one center to another they will have the opportunity to
experience the fossils games at the web site http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/fossilfun/.
The students will be allowed to play one or more of the games. These games provide
useful information on the many different ways in which fossils are formed, fossil
jigsaw puzzles, footprint races, and using camouflage to help either predator or prey
survive in its environment.
Closing the Lesson:
 Once the students have had a chance to analyze and discuss the photos with each, the
teacher will assemble the class for a final discussion. The teacher will gather the photos
and discuss each one, filling in the necessary information about each dinosaur to see if
the students were able to develop a sense of what each dinosaur was like in its
environment.
 The students will have a chance to discuss the many fossil games they experienced at the
technology learning center.
 The students will take the new knowledge and apply it to a writing assignment in their
science journals. The students will write about how certain characteristics help animals
survive today. They should choose one animal to write about. They should be able to
discuss its characteristics and why it is helpful for survival. They should be able to
describe what would happen to that animal if it did not have its characteristics.
 The students will draw a picture to represent that organism in its environment.
 Students who finish early can begin the Mesozoic Era crossword puzzle to be finished as
homework for the next day.
Assessing the Lesson:
 Students will be assessed on participation and discussion as teacher engages groups in
learning centers.
 Students will be assessed based on the worksheet provided.
 A final assessment for comprehension will be based on the journal writing to gauge
whether students have an understanding for how certain characteristics of an organism
help it to survive in its environment. They will use what they learned on the gaming web
site to reflect their new knowledge of how fossils form.
Resources and Materials:
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http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/fossilfun/
Power point presentation of photos of fossils and dinosaurs
Copies of photos for student analysis
Science journal
Pencils
Colored pencils
Fossil Characteristic Worksheet
Mesozoic puzzle
Comments and Reflections:
 I have taken the opportunity to adapt a previous lesson to include more technology. For
this lesson I found it quite easy to integrate gaming technology into a lesson on fossils.
There was a great deal of information on the Internet which could have been adapted to
this lesson but I chose the site from the BBC because I wanted a credible site and one
which was user friendly. This site has several games ranging from fossil formation to
animal adaptations to fossil puzzles. The site goes to great lengths to put the information
in usable terms for young children and the site is easy to navigate. I really like the idea of
using this type of learning when conducting learning center. It can keep the students from
losing focus if they know they will have the opportunity to play a game at some point
during the lesson activity. The only difficulty I had with incorporating this bit of
technology into the lesson was finding the METS to match. Some of the standards
sounded like they could be reasons into the lesson but in the end most sounded like a
stretch and I have no problem using these types of sites to enhance and meet the other
content areas and not just the technology standards. I believe I will dedicate some lessons
to achieve those objectives but in a manner that focuses on technology a little more than
gaming for science.