This lesson plan is about the process by which paleontologists locate, excavate, and study dinosaurs. Students will write journal entries pretending they are on a dinosaur dig. They will also make fact sheets about this recently discovered Jobaria dinosaur; place Jobaria into a timeline to indicate the periods in which it lived; visit a website to learn about the steps involved in finding and excavating ... Full description.

This site discusses and defines a number of extinction concepts and provides a survey of some important extinction and extinction-like events, primarily from the Phanerozoic. There is information about species transitions, abrupt and mass extinctions, patterns and causal mechanisms of extinction, and isotope studies. Events that occurred during the Proterozoic, Vendian-Cambrian, Upper Cambrian (Dolgellian, ... Full description.

In this activity, students build Euoplocephalus and Triceratops dinosaurs, answer basic counting questions, and print out coloring pages. The site provides basic information on the two kinds of dinosaurs and a list of further reading materials. Full description.

This site provides descriptions of dinosaurs and audio of what the dinosaurs might say to describe themselves. Students can listen to the pronunciation of a dinosaur name by clicking on the phonetic spelling of the name. There is also a computer activity in which the user must match clues to dinosaur names. Full description.

This site discusses the unusual occurrence of a preserved, fossilized heart in the 66-million-year-old skeleton of a small, plant-eating Thescelosaurus, nicknamed 'Willo'. Materials include a false color, 3-D reconstruction and other images of the chest cavity; a video showing a 3-D rotation around the heart; information on the Center for the Exploration of the Dinosaurian World; an article about ... Full description.

This essay on mass extinction events (Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic, Cretaceous) in the geologic record is a chapter from History of Life, a book written by Richard Cowen, in which he discusses the general geologic body of knowledge surrounding each mass extinction event. Additionally, the author provides thirty-two (32) bibliographic references (primarily peer-reviewed science journals) ... Full description.

In this imaginary fossil hunt, students learn about the uncertainty of science and the fact that, as new evidence is revealed, ideas may change. As they follow a script read by the teacher, students find (remove from envelope) paper fossils of some unknown creature, a few at a time. Each time, they attempt to reconstruct the creature and each time their interpretation tends to change as new pieces ... Full description.

This site allows students to interactively explore the answers to basic questions regarding fossils. It explains what we can learn from fossils and demonstrates how their characteristics can be used as clues to the past. Full description.

This is an interactive site which demonstrates diversity through the use of the fossil record. Specific groups of fossils are used to illustrate mass extinction and evolution. Full description.

The author provides an overview of the study of microfossils. He explains what they are, where they are found and how they are studied. The reader is also provided with specific examples and the types of microfossils that are easily studied. A varied list of reference works on microfossils is also included. Full description.