Explorations dinosaurs Explorations Through Time
A series of interactive modules that explore the history of life on Earth, while focusing on the processes of science. Each module contains suggested lesson plans and an extensive teacher’s guide.
Module
Target Grade Levels
K–4 5–8 9–12
Informational Life Has a History Life Has a History introduces students to the history of life and how it results in today’s biodiversity.
Getting Into the Fossil Record Getting Into the Fossil Record helps students gain a basic understanding of what a fossil is and how a fossil forms.
Understanding Geologic Time Understanding Geologic Time introduces students to geologic time, the evidence for events in Earth’s history, relative and absolute dating techniques, and the significance of the geologic time scale.
Stories From the Fossil Record Stories From the Fossil Record provides students with a basic understanding of how fossils can be used to interpret the past. There are four different pathways to explore: biodiversity, geologic time, paleoecology and past lives.
Advanced What Did T. rex Taste Like? What Did T. rex Taste Like? provides an introduction to cladistics (a way of organizing living things by common ancestry and evolutionary relationships) and involves students in posing hypotheses about past life based upon evolutionary history.  
Adventures at Dry Creek Adventures at Dry Creek virtually engages students in scientific research. Students join “science mentors” to gather data and interpret direct and indirect evidence to propose multiple hypotheses of what life was like in Montana 60–70 million years ago.  
The Evolution of Flight The Evolution of Flight examines evidence from the fossil record, behavior, biomechanics and cladistic analysis to interpret the sequence of events that led to flight in the dinosaur lineage. Students gather, organize and analyze data and then propose hypotheses about the evolution of flight in birds.  
The Arthropod Story The Arthropod Story takes students on an interactive tour through the amazing evolutionary history of arthropods, introducing them to taxonomy, paleontology, natural history and principles of evolution.  
=suggested grade level; =adaptable to grade level
 
EXPLORATIONS THROUGH TIME is a project of the University of California Museum of Paleontology with support from:

NSF Pacific Bell

 
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