All labs are menu options for schools when scheduling your visit, and are also available as outreach in your classroom.
Fossils and Devonian Ecosystems
The Ultimate Interactive Lab!
3rd grade & up
Brief Description:
Students are introduced to fossils from the Ohio Valley, their identification and how they are interpreted as living creatures. Students use models to make a diorama of a Devonian sea floor ecosystem. Each diorama is unique and never duplicated – consequently we encourage students and educators to photograph them for posterity.
Objectives:
Students will…
1.) know what a fossil is.
2.) recognize similarities and differences in modern marine life.
3.) be able to recognize differences between carnivores, herbivores, scavengers and filter feeders.
4.) be able to identify eight fossils using identification pages.
5.) handle models of “living” Devonian fossils and place them in an empty diorama that each student helps create.
6.) be able to photograph the class’ unique diorama to share at school and at home.
The lab begins with an introduction “What is a fossil?” This helps us match the program to the knowledge of your students. Understanding life today is key to interpreting fossils, so discussion of connections will be made.
Students will work in teams to match fossils from the Ohio Valley with identification guides. They handle fossils and use shapes and patterns for identification.
The fossils from the first hands-on activity will connect them to the second. The instructor will describe how different types of Devonian sea life lived. Students will determine whether it was a carnivore, herbivore, scavenger or filter feeder based on the description.
Using models from the old Devonian diorama that used to be in the exhibit gallery, each student will help construct a unique model by placing them in “an empty sea floor.” When complete, participants can photograph their Devonian sea diorama to share at school and with family and friends. We will provide photos if no one brings a camera. (See photos below.)
Lab length: 50 minutes
Maximum number per lab: 30 students
Fossils: Discovering the Waldron Shale
for 3rd grade & up
Brief Description:
Students examine common fossils from the Ohio Valley and match them with identification sheets before using Silurian shale with fossils that are more challenging to recognize.
Objectives:
Students will…
1.) know what a fossil is.
2.) recognize similarities and differences in modern marine life.
3.) be able to recognize differences between carnivores, herbivores, scavengers and filter feeders.
4.) be able to identify eight fossils using identification pages.
5.) know how shale is formed.
6.) be able to differentiate fossils from ordinary shale.
7.) be able to match fossils with the their feeding style: carnivores, herbivores, scavengers and filter feeders.
8.) be able to identify pyrite (fool’s gold) as a mineral.
The lab begins with an introduction “What is a fossil?” Since understanding life today helps us understand how life used to be, students will identify 10 – 20 different types of organisms in the ocean. A review of their feeding styles will be made.
Students will work in teams to match fossils from the Ohio Valley with identification guides. They handle fossils and use shapes and patterns for identification. A review of how the fossils may have lived will be covered, using the fossils on their table.
Working in teams, students will sort through a Middle Silurian shale (about 425 million years old) to discover what fossils may be found. A guide will be used to identify the fossils, which may include: brachiopods, bryozoans, cephalopods, clams, corals, crinoids, cystoids, graptolites, snails, sponges, trilobites and trace fossils. We will review those fossil types not discussed earlier. Schools will be able to keep the fossils they find, collected during the last lab session and will get identification pages for the Waldron Shale fossils.
Lab length: 50 minutes
Maximum number per lab: 30 students
How Fossils Lived
K – 2nd grade
Brief Description:
Students are introduced to fossils, how to identify them and how the Devonian sea compares to today’s oceans.
Goal: Students will learn how life is similar, and yet changed from life during the Devonian period.
Objectives: Students will…
1.) know what a fossil is.
2.) recognize similarities and differences between Devonian and modern marine life.
3.) be able to recognize differences between different forms of life.
4.) be able to identify eight fossils from 20 illustrations.
5.) Students will understand that creatures live in different parts of the sea and are adapted to live there.
The lab begins with an introduction “What is a fossil?” We cobble together a definition based on the input from students.
The first hands-on activity allows the students to handle and try to match their fossil with picture identification pages.
The second part of the lab in an activity where students draw a Devonian ocean scene. First students are asked to name different creatures that live in the ocean. If one existed during the Devonian, it is drawn on the board. If it did not exist, it is not used. If an ancestor to something around today existed during the Devonian, then the drawing is of the ancient creature, not is modern descendant. Students draw and color a scene based on the illustrations on the white board; they are encouraged to be as creative as possible. Students keep their art work. (See photos below.)
Lab length: One class period, about 50 minutes
Maximum number per lab: 30 students
Minerals and Our World
A Hands-on Lab
for 3rd grade & up
Brief Description:
This lab focuses on observing the characteristics of minerals (and their difference from rocks) and how ores (both rock and mineral) are part of life with examples in the classroom. Students will see real-world connections of how minerals are an essential part of modern society.
Goal: Students will understand some fundamental differences between rocks and minerals and learn how minerals are an essential part of their day-to-day lives.
Objectives: Students will…
1.) know what a rock is.
2.) know what a mineral is.
3.) be able to recognize the characteristics of luster, color and crystal form in minerals.
4.) be able to identify uses for copper, calcium, fluorine, iron, lead and silica.
5.) pick out every day items made of minerals in a room.
6.) recognize objects used by prehistoric people made from rocks or minerals.
The lab begins with students examining a piece of limestone and calcite and determining which is a rock and mineral through simple observation.
Students get one of six minerals to examine and learn some of the properties (luster, crystal form, color) and write a description.
Students will write the dominant element of their mineral and how it might be used in things see in their daily lives.
The instructor will ask students to point out any item in the room and learn which minerals are used to make it (i.e., drywall – gypsum; brick – clay minerals; window – quartz, etc.).
Prehistoric projectile points are handled and drawn. The use of rocks and minerals used thousands of years ago will be discussed. Why was salt so valuable? What makes a gemstone valuable?
Lab length: One class period, about 45 minutes
Maximum number per lab: 30 students
