Activities
Visit
a Dinosaur Internet Museum
There are
two kinds of museums that you can visit with your class: an actual museum
of fossils or an Internet museum. In both kinds of visits, you should
direct your students toward particular goals. These goals may include
answers to the following:
- How is the museum arranged? (Is it arranged according to the ages of the dinosaurs? Is it arranged according to the types of dinosaurs? Is it arranged according to the types of biomes inhabited by the dinosaurs?)
- What can
we learn by looking at the dinosaur bones?
- We
can learn how the bones were preserved (fossilized): often by permineralization,
or the including of minerals in the microscopic spaces of the bones.
- We can learn about the sizes of the dinosaurs: usually a museum has at least one bone that can be touched for measurement. The diapsid holes in the heads of the big meateaters, meant that they did not have to hold as much weight with their necks. The short necks of the big- headed carnivores gave them a strong base for the weight of those heads. The long tail acted as a counterbalance. Grooves in the plates of a stegosaur probably held blood vessels that helped the dinosaur either release heat or gain heat.
- We
can learn how the bones were preserved (fossilized): often by permineralization,
or the including of minerals in the microscopic spaces of the bones.
- What can we learn about dinosaur lifestyle?
- What can we learn about dinosaur walking style?
- What can we learn about the dinosaur eating? Could they chew?
- Are there any modern animals that use the same kinds of defense that some of the dinosaurs used?
- You can
visit the Honolulu Community College Dinosaur Exhibit.
http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/hccinfo/dinos/dinos.1.html
For additional activities visit the Resource Room.
