5E-Learning Cycle Lesson Plan

Essential Question: How does a living thing become a fossil?

The NGSS Connections are as followed:

Core Idea(s):
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
Life science (LS) - Elementary School (3-5): “Fossils provide evidence about the types of organisms that lived long ago
and also about the nature of their environment.”
➔ In this lesson, students will explore fossil evidence about the T. Rex, Sue, and a Stegosaurus to make claims like
the way they looked, what they ate, how they moved, etc. To assess students' understanding, they will be using
their imaginations to build fossilizations for their own made-up animal and their given unknown animal for their
investigation activity. Similar to their study of Sue and a Stegosaurus, students will determine what their animal
will look like, what they will eat, the way they move, their habitat, etc.

CCCs:
Structure and Function
The way an object is shaped or structured determines many of its properties and functions.
Cross Cutting Concepts - Elementary school (3-5): “The functions and properties of natural and designed objects and
systems can be inferred from their overall structure, the way their components are shaped and used, and the molecular
substructures of its various materials.”
➔ This lesson focuses on how the forms of an organism’s structures like their shape, the number of teeth, the size of
their bones, and many more identifications provide evidence of what the organism was like when they were
living. To support students learning, they will be looking at scientific websites and answering inquiry questions
about the process of fossilization and how fossils provide evidence to help paleontologists make interpretations
about the past living organism life.

In addition to the CCC concept mentioned above, students will interact with the following CCC concepts:
● Cause and Effect:
Students are going to be engaging in fact vs. idea which entails for them to use the facts and their relative ideas
they have gathered from the resources being provided to build their understanding of fossils. During this,
students will begin to understand that fossils tell what we would know from their fossilized forms/the fact vs.
what we do know from our interpretations/ideas. With this, students will be developing an understanding of the
process of fossilization and how fossils tell stories of past living organisms’ lives, during their time frame. For
instance, using the resources provided, students will be able to use the facts and statistics provided to help them
understand the cause of why a fossil would have physical changes in color or size or what the animals could have
eaten to affect ones to rot more than the other.
● Stability and Change:
In understanding how fossils are able to tell stories of past living organisms, students will be engaging in the
concept of stability and change as they will be comparing the fossilization of one organism to another. In this
lesson, students will be comparing the fossilized form of a horse and a Stegosaurus. Through this engagement,
students will be able to use the resources provided (images, websites, teacher guidance) to provide evidence that
will support their findings.

SEPs:
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
The products of science are explanations and the products of engineering are solutions.
Science and Engineering Practices - Elementary School (3-5): ”Use evidence (e.ge. measurement, observations,
patterns) to construct or support an explanation or design a solution to a problem.”
 ➔ In this lesson, students were able to discuss how we know about living organisms from direct observations versus
what we think we know about past organisms by using fossil evidence to make inferences or claims. By the end
of the lesson, students should be able to understand how fossils help tell us what the animal ate, what the animal
looked like, etc. from their fossilized form. With the help of this information, students will know how to build
interpretations (using their imaginations) to form the fossilization story of an animal.

In addition to the SEP concept mentioned above, students will interact with the following SEP concepts:
● Developing and Using Models:
Students are going to be encouraged to use their imaginations to build a fossilization story for their own chosen
animal. However, before doing this on their own, I will be modeling to them how to use fossils and facts/ideas
about the living organism to form inferences about animal life. This modeling will be done through their
“Activity 1: Fossilization” on a horse and Stegosaurus. Then, students will use what was modeled in their
investigation (of their unknown animal) and in their formative assessment (of becoming a paleontologist).
● Planning and carrying out Investigations:
In this lesson, students will be engaging in an investigation of collecting lost fossils of an unknown past living
organism. In this situation, students will have to step into the role of a paleontologist and brainstorm, using the
additional websites and other resources provided, to analyze the fossils facts and other characteristics ideas that
will help them determine the unknown animal. Additionally, with their groups, students will need to brainstorm
a fossilization story from their facts gathered. Since this investigation students will compete with their peers, they
will need to build a strategic plan on how they will quickly and accurately determine their unknown organism
before their peers.
● Analyzing and interpreting Data:
As stated above, when engaging in their own investigation of an unknown past living organism, students will
have to study and analyze the evidence and data provided, to determine their unknown organism. Thus, upon
knowing their unknown animal, students will then need to use the facts to interpret their own fossilization story.

Connection to the Anchoring Phenomena:

In this lesson, students are going to be provided many additional technological resources such as websites that provide
scientifically authentic information about dinosaurs and other past living organisms. The child-friendly websites provided
will help students build upon their prior knowledge about dinosaurs because they include thorough descriptions about
dinosaurs’ looks and anatomy (size, teeth and jaws, skin, etc.) facts about the living era of the dinosaur, what they ate,
how they hunt for their prey, their intelligence levels, etc. Additionally, the websites provide historical knowledge like
who were the individuals that founded the dinosaurs and when and how they became extinct. Broadly to speak on the
other websites students will be provided, similarly, they are very detailed with many tabs for students to explore that
include extended information about fossils.

All websites provided, include a variety of visuals and some even have interactive graphics that allow students to see
how the dinosaur physically looks to a human eye compared to how they look in fossil form, underneath their skin before
the process of fossilization. In addition to interactive websites that specifically help build on students’ identification of
dinosaurs, students will have access to educational websites that draw on real life experiences and studying of known
dinosaurs. For instance, students had the wonder of studying the T. Rex Sue through the Field Museum website. Because
of this, they were able to investigate Sue’s story to begin understanding how fossils tell the story about living organisms
and their environment in which they lived.

Lastly, to provide students more support in learning about fossils and fossilization, I will present critical thinking
discussion questions to further students' thoughts and students are going to be working with inquiry worksheets and
interactive activities that will allow them to draw connections and form new ideas about the anchor phenomena. Through
the websites, questions, and worksheets, students will be able to become active dinosaur explorers which would be
illustrated in them conducting their own investigation of an unknown organism as paleontologists.

Measurable Learning Objective:

3-LS4-1: Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which
they lived long ago.
➔ In this lesson, students will study horses, Sue the T-Rex, a Stegosaurus, the unknown animal from their
investigation, and engage as paleontologist for their formative assessment. In these activities, students will have
to analyze and compare what they know about living organisms and how they know it by drawing connections
with the fossil evidence they will gather from studying organisms that lived long ago.

ENGAGEMENT:
To motivate students' interest in the essential question, students will begin by studying the story of Sue, the T-Rex on
display at The Field Museum. We know by natural inclination; children automatically have a growth interest for
dinosaurs and the overall topic of fossils. Therefore, to build on this, students will be using the guided worksheet “Fossils
and Dinosaurs” to guide them through the museum page “All About Sue”. In this exploration, students will be actively
exploring through each tab and answering the corresponding worksheet questions. Prior to individuals working on their
exploration of Sue, I would be asking students if they have ever heard of Sue the T-Rex and to share any information
they remember or details about her fossils. This is just as an engagement for me to know the background knowledge
students are using before gaining insight from the websites.

The worksheet questions are as followed:

1. What do we know about Sue?
➔ What facts, ideas, and statistics are being provided on the museum website. For instance, how
big is her skull? How many does she have? Where was she found? List any.
2. How do we know all these things?
➔ This question is to begin introducing students to the process of fossilization. Because of this,
their answers might be generic as stating that we know this information from her bones or fossils
but not quite understanding the process of fossilization.
3. What is the significance to finding Sue?
➔ In understanding fossils, they would need to recognize that being able to find a complete
skeleton of past living organisms is not an easy process. Additionally, they will learn that not all
parts of an animal can become fossilized because not all parts of an animal anatomy can turn into
fossils. Therefore, it is important for them to know why Sue is important.
4. How do we know this?
➔ This question is in hope of activating students' prior knowledge of other fossils and compare it to
Sue’s fossils.
5. What is something new you learned about Sue, that you didn't know before?
➔ This could be the first time of some students learning about Sue, so this will allow them the
chance to reflect on the information and maybe draw connections to their overall knowledge
about dinosaurs.
6. If you have the chance of interacting with Sue, what would you do?
➔ This will allow students to begin using their imagination, as they will be doing this a lot for the
entire lesson. Allow them to activate their creative minds.

In addition to the inquiry questions about Sue, to engage student’s prior knowledge about fossils in general before
engaging in the lesson, students will be answering questions that will allow them to input their personal
experiences/interactions about dinosaurs. As with all background knowledge questions, this will allow me to know which
terms/ specific concepts will need to be explained with a lot of context and which will need a brief overview. When we
are going over students' answers, they will be able to share personal museum visits, their favorite dinosaur or animal, if
they have any dinosaur toys, if they want any dinosaur movies, etc. During this time students will engage in the talk
motive “share-trade” where they will be able to share their answers about their personal experiences first with their peers
before being able to share them out with the entire class. This is to ensure that for students who are not as comfortable
sharing aloud, they will still be able to do so in a smaller setting. Additionally, this is a great way for students to become
comfortable working and communicating with their group when it comes to their investigation. Generally, this will be
able to promote peer interaction because it will allow for students to see what their peers know and to gain insight from
them and their experiences with fossils or overall knowledge about dinosaurs.

The questions are as followed:

1. What’s a fossil?
➔ Students will probably keep the answer to this question general by saying through the dinosaur
bones. In this case, guide them to think about specific characteristics that make up dinosaurs
like, dinosaur eggs, nest, tracks, impressions, etc. Guide them to think about what evidence is
used to help us know of past living organisms?
2. How do fossils form?
➔ This question could be difficult for the students because though they are going to be familiar
with dinosaurs and have a slight understanding of fossils, they could have trouble understanding
the process of how dinosaurs turn into fossils. It is okay for students to not understand as this
is what we are studying in our lesson.
3. What can fossils tell us?
➔ As with the last question, this question could also be difficult for students to answer however
guide them to think about what they learned about Sue and how we learned them.
4. What personal experiences/background knowledge do you have on dinosaurs?
➔ Do you know any facts? Which dinosaur is your favorite? Do you know any Dinosaur movies?
Students can use this section to share anything they would want.

In addition to these questions, I will be providing students books that they will be able to read and use to help them learn
more about fossils and to use to answer the questions. The books will be on display for students to use at their own
desire. (Students can use the book to help figure out answers or if they are waiting for their peers to finish, they
can begin reading the books for fun) Overall, through the webpage about Sue and guiding questions, students will be
able to share their found knowledge about dinosaurs by drawing connections to their personal experiences, in order to
greater their understanding of fossils and begin their learning about the process of fossilization.

In support of students with diverse needs:

Being that there would be students of diverse verbal, hearing, behavioral, and bilingual needs the question prompts
provided with being able to help them still actively participate with their peers and since the website will provide pictures
and words, they will be able to use both to help them better access the information.
➔ For students with verbal communication (or any verbal need) needs, will be able to write down their
responses and/or use a computerized communication app to help them discuss with their partners. As with the
websites, students will be able to have their computer interactive read the words on the screen.
➔ For students who have hearing needs, I will be able to provide them notes and scaffolding questions to ensure
they are still being guided, to stay aligned with their peers. Depending on their level of hearing, students will still
be encouraged to participate with their peers or they can engage in a paper trade to be able to read one another’s
responses.
➔ For students with behavioral needs, they will still be given the worksheet and websites however, depending on
their behavioral actions the interaction will be addressed accordingly. For instance, if a student has trouble
remaining attentive, they will only be required to explore the website and have the worksheet as guidance. If
possible, students would be able to watch an informational video about Sue.
 ➔ For bilingual students, if possible, the worksheets would be able to be translated by me or through a translating
app. If students are still having trouble drawing connections of dinosaurs, I would be able to provide translated
videos about Sue. In the worksheet provided, the questions will be more simplified. For instance, instead of
having “what do we know about Sue” students would be asked the below direct questions of “what are facts
about Sue?”

EXPLORATION of the concept:

This lesson is within a two-part series of fossils; Fossils 1: Fossils and Dinosaurs and Fossils 2: Uncovering the Facts.
For this lesson today, students will only be focusing on Fossil 1: Fossils and Dinosaurs which builds their background
understanding of what fossils are and how things become fossilized. Being said, the investigation students will be doing
relies on them forming four groups of 4 students (more depending on the class size) to engage in an active scavenger
hunt around the classroom. In this investigation, I will be spreading cardboard fossil replicas of a Protoceratops and a
Triceratops around the classroom. (This activity is going to be a competition between each group. Therefore, groups
with the same animals will be separated from each other). The groups will be broken down into groups A, B, C, and
D and would need to find the corresponding pieces with their letter. For instance, for students in group A their pieces
would be labeled at 1A, 2A, 3A, etc. all the way through the last piece. Whereas students in group B pieces would be
labeled as 1B, 2B, etc. The process is similar for all groups. This is to ensure that all groups have all the pieces
needed to build their organism.

However, students do not know that they are building a Protoceratops or a Triceratops. Therefore, they will need to
consult each other, brainstorm ideas, and use the websites provided to narrow down their choices. Recognizing that
students will have many dinosaurs to choose from, I will be providing each group a list of 5 dinosaurs to help them
narrow their choices even more. All groups will have the options of a Protoceratops and a Triceratops, but the other 3
options will all be different. In addition to me providing them a list of dinosaurs to focus on, the cardboard pieces will
include clues such as facts and details about the animal. (Clues will be in an envelope that will be given to them after
they have the correct order of pieces). Before students will be able to begin building their fossilization of the unknown
animal, I would need to check to ensure that their fossils are in the correct spaces. (Clues for how to put them in the
correct order will be on the back of the cardboard pieces). Other than providing students hints and clues, I will not be
able to help them. They will be dependent on their peers and themselves to build their unknown animal.

To ensure that students are keeping their discussions of their animals and clues within themselves, they will be engaging
in the talk activity “discussion diamond”. With this, they will be given a white board and would need to communicate
their ideas only by writing, pointing, or illustrating their thoughts. Students will be able to respond on the white board to
each other's ideas in any way that they feel will help their group. As previously stated, since this is going to be a
competition, I will encourage students to be secretive of their plans, so they do not end up helping their peers win.

When groups believe they have correctly identified their unknown animal, it will be checked in by me. Again, since this
is a competition, I will be keeping track of the order in which all groups finished. Until the investigation is completely
over, and groups have shared their fossilization stories, then the winner will be revealed. However, until then, no
students will know who is in the lead or who already won. Though I want for my students to have fun, the point of
this investigation is to actively explore the anchor phenomenon and what they have been learning all day.
Therefore, I still want for them to focus on gaining accurate information and understanding the process rather
than beating their peers. After students have their animal correctly identified, they would be able to begin their
fossilization storyline of the animal, using the clues they were provided and additional information from the websites.
After all groups finished their investigations and storyline, they will share their story with the class. The students' stories
should be fun, imaginary, and different from each other.

In support of students with diverse needs:

➔ For students with verbal communication (or any verbal need) needs, the investigation calls for the student to
 write their responses so there should not need to be any adaptations for this need. However, it depends on the
specific student.
➔ For students who have hearing needs, for the student's hearing needs they will be able to use a computerized app
that will be able to actively type if their group does stay something but because the group is communicating on a
whiteboard the student should be actively involved. (again, the level of modification depends on the level of
hearing need)
➔ For students with behavioral needs, similar to above, depending on the behavioral need of the student they will
be modified accordingly. However, if the students do have trouble remaining attentive, I believe this
investigation will be fun and easy for them to stay active and on task with their group being that they will be able
to move around the classroom (not confined to their desk). More so, if the student works or communicates well
with another peer, I will be able to put them in the same group so they can motivate one another.
➔ For bilingual students, if possible, I will attempt to partner them with another student who is able to have some
communication with them or able to speak their authentic language to help communicate the groups and their
ideas back and forth. Additionally, or instead, the students will be accompanied by their social worker (if one) or
I will be able to provide their group more guidance to ensure they are equally involved with the student. On the
other hand, students will be able to communicate through translating apps.

EXPLANATION of the concept:

Students will complete many activities that will help them discuss fossilization. The activities provided will allow them
to compare and contrast animals’ fossils, use websites to read and expand their knowledge on fossils and what they can
provide to us, and use their imagination to build their own animals and fossilization to practice using facts and ideas to
build a story that would tell us about their animal life (what did they eat? How big were they? What habit did they live
in? etc.) For instance, in a variation of their activity, students will be engaging in an imaginative process that involves
them using drawing a picture of their own made-up creature and building their way of life. For this student would need
to tell their audience what type of food the animal ate and from where/how, students would need to describe what the
animal does, and students would need to determine that, from their made-up animal fossils, would paleontologist beagle
to find out about their animal's way of life. Through this, students will be able to actively participate in science by
using facts from other dinosaurs to build their own. Continuing, they are able to build a visual image and deeper
connection to the concepts and vocabulary being presented. Therefore, to ensure students are making sense of their
explorations, they would be constantly reflecting on their new learnings by answering discussion questions that will help
them expand on their thoughts gained from the resources provided.

The questions to present to the students are as following:

1. How do we know what we know about dinos?
➔ In having students studying the fossils of horses and Stegosaurus (and comparing and
contrasting them), they should be able to answer this question by recognizing that bones can tell
the size of the animal, if they are a fast runner, the kinds of teeth the animal had, etc.
Additionally, students will be able to use their Sue exploration. Students would be able to use the
word “fossil” to build on their answers.
2. What would we know about an animal if it were to go extinct?
➔ Students will have to understand that fossils carry evidence/clues that help paleontologists make
inferences and draw connections to build stories. Students will be discussing how since only
hard parts, like bones and teeth, can be fossilized, tell us what we need to know about a living
organism. Students should begin to become comfortable with the word “fossilization” and its
relation to the topic.
3. What do we know about fossilized animals?
➔ By studying a Stegosaurus, students will be provided images of the animal and would be asked
to interpret what we can gain from their fossils. This can be guessed from the student’s prior
knowledge and/or they can also use the websites provided to input factual information. Students
 would be able to become clear with the word “fossilized” and what it means for something to
be/what makes something “fossilized” through their answers.
4. How does imagination come into play when interpreting fossils?
➔ Throughout this lesson, students are going to be engaging their imaginative skills to build
fossilization stories of living organisms, in this case for their investigation animal, a horse, and a
Stegosaurus. In this, students should begin to understand the job of a paleontologist and what a
paleontologist.
5. What are things that we have to guess about?
➔ Students will be able to recognize that not every part of an animal can be fossilized. Being said,
they would be able to build the understanding that sometimes paleontologists interpret or guess
unknown information from scientific evidence gathered from the fossils. This is important,
because since we were not present with dinosaurs, we have to guess the type of foods they ate
from grooves in their teeth or guess their colors from discolorations in their fossils.

In addition to responding to whole class discussion questions, students' answers will be projected on the whiteboard for
peers to see and respond to, expand on, make adjustments, etc. To exemplify, when students are done completing their
“Activity 1: Fossilization” I will be making a two-column chart labeled “What we know about dinosaurs” and “what we
have to guess”. In this, students will categorize what is easily able to be gathered from animal fossils through the use of
their bones and teeth and what would we have to guess from their bones and teeth to tell us specific things about the
animals like what food they ate, etc. This will allow for students to re-illiterate what they have learned in the fossilization
activity from me and their peers.

When students are able to gain feedback from their peers it only goes to better their understanding of the lesson
and confusing ideas. Students know how to speak to each other in their own language than an educator when
using academic language and educational materials that not all students will be able to easily grasp right away.
More so, students will be able to communicate with their peers and discuss the worksheets they would be completing,
discuss in their investigation groups about their unknown animal, and as self-reflection students will be able to discuss
with each other things like, what made their investigation hard? What made it easy? What facts did they find the most
useful? What did they have to interpret/use their imagination to understand?

Throughout this process, students will be engaging in “all-class science talk”, because I am going to be posing questions
to all students to answer and be able to share input from their individual exploration of websites and understandings from
the worksheets/activities being presented. Because students are going to write their own fossilization story for their own
imaginative animal, they would be engaging in their writing and grammar skills for the lesson. However, to provide
guidance students would be provided leading questions to help them expand and build their stories.

Writing prompts are as followed:

1. What kinds of food would your animal eat?
➔ Does your animal prey on other dinosaurs, specific kinds of insects, leaves from trees, plants
grown from the trees, etc.
2. What does your animal teeth, skin, nails, feet, hands look like?
➔ How many teeth does it have? How does it grow? Are they sharp or dull? What is their skin
texture? Soft? Hard? Does it have scales? Does it have fur? Does it have nails? Are they sharp?
How many teeth does it have?
3. How does your animal stand?
➔ Does it stand on their back feet? Or on all fours? Does it fly?
4. How many eyes does your animal have?
➔ Does it have night vision? Can its eyes change color? What color are its eyes? Where are they
located?
 5. Does your animal have a tail?
➔ How long is it? What is it? What does it use it for?
6. How tall is your animal?
➔ What is the average born height? How tall can your animal grow to be?
7. What is the weight of your animal?
➔ What is the average born weight? How big can your animal grow to be?
8. What other dinosaur would be your animal friend?
➔ What animal is the most compatible with yours? Why? What animal is the least compatible with
yours? Why?
9. Where does your animal live?
➔ What is its natural habitat? What is the temperature? Where can it be mostly found?
10. How fast is your animal?
➔ What is the average distance your animal can go within a few seconds? Or does your animal
move really slow?

In addition to the writing prompts, students will be using the sentence starters “this dinosaur might have” or “the fossil
evidence suggests” to support their reasoning. With these prompts and students' imagination, their stories should be in
depth and completely different from one another.

ELABORATION of the concept:

In this lesson, students will be doing “Activity 1: Fossilization” where they would be using a source from Berkeley’s
Museum of Paleontology to begin thinking about fossils and the process of fossilization. In this activity, students will be
comparing what they know about horses to a Stegosaurus.

The steps are as followed:

Step One: First, I will be listing facts about horses and other living animals on the board. The facts that will be
listed are such as that animal being large of saze, a fast runner, eats grass, has grinding teeth, has long hair for
mane and tail, whinnies, etc. To expand on the students list they will be asked more questions about the animal
that would build on them separation fact from ideas/guesses.

The questions are as followed:

1. How do you think the dinosaurs acted?
2. How did they treat their young?
3. Did they lay eggs or give live birth?
4. Could the dinos see well?
5. How did dinos communicate?

Step Two: Then, I will propose questions to the class that is listed above. What would we know about this animal
if it were extinct? In this student would be using the list that was made above to choose things that indicate what
we would know about the horse from its fossilized bones and teeth. Their responses will be circled on the board.
Following, students would be making guesses on things that we would know.

Step Three: Next, I will propose the question to the class that is listed above. What do we know about fossilized
animals? With this, students will be looking at pictures of a stegosaurus and students will be able to interpret the
information that can be gathered. As previously mentioned, this can be facts or student guesses.

Step Four: Lastly, students will endure in an imaginative process that involves them adding skin and muscles to
the stegosaurus. This activity will help them understand how imagination comes into play with the interpretation
of fossils.
After students have a greater understanding of what can become fossilized, they will complete a worksheet and watch a
fossils BrainPOP Jr. video to learn more about how fossils are formed. In the video, it is going to go over the process of
fossils and students will need to understand that the burial process is crucial because it is the leading cause to why many
animals do not get fossilized. After they have completed the video and worksheet, students will draw their own diagrams
demonstrating the process of fossilization with any animal of their choosing and would be discussing why the burial
process is crucial and needs to be right.
Points to be assessed from the video:
➔ An animal must get buried fairly quickly
➔ Why must it be buried quickly?
➔ How might it be buried?
➔ Water helps bury the animal in sediment.
➔ Soft parts decay.
➔ Sediment presses down and sand hardens to rock forming a fossil.

EVALUATION of the content mastery and conceptual understanding:

For the final assessment of this lesson, first students will be exploring the websites “Fighting Dinos” from the American
museum of Natural History’s Ology website (uses fossil evidence to tell the story of a deadly clash between two
dinosaurs) and the website “Science of Sue” from The Field Museum website (researched gathered knowledge from
studying Sue). After students have explored these sites, then they will be pretending they are a paleontologist to tell the
story of a completed dinosaur that they pieced together.
In the formative assessment students will be doing the following:
➔ Students will be pretending to work in a museum that had just pieces together the fossils of a completed
dinosaurs
➔ Students will need to describe the dinosaur and tell a story about its life, based on the fossils they found.
➔ Students will need to use what they have learned about living animals to come up with their ideas about
their dinosaur.
➔ Students will need to provide evidence from what they found in their fossils to back up their ideas.
➔ Students are encouraged to be creative in describing the life of their dinosaur.
➔ Students would need to use the prompt “this dinosaur might have” and/or “the fossil evidence suggests”