Western Australian Museum
Perth
K-3
Early Childhood
We Dig Dinosaurs
Facilitated Program
Overview:
Become a palaeontologist for the day! Brush, chip and sort your way
through a variety of hands-on activities, just like a real fossil finder.
Investigate how fossils reveal the secrets from life as it was millions
of years ago.
Duration: One hour facilitated experience with a Museum Education Officer.
Please allow approximately 45 minutes additional time for self-guided
gallery exploration using Student Activity sheets and Adult Helper Guide.
What your class will experience:
Uncover a large fossil buried under sand.
Use tools to excavate a fossil from rock.
Reconstruct a dinosaur skeleton.
Identify real fossils.
Learn types of fossils.
Self-guided gallery exploration.
Excursion Booking and Enquiries:
For enquiries and bookings please contact:
Western Australian Museum – Perth
Education
Phone: 9427 2792
Fax: 9427 2883
Email: [email protected]
Western Australian Museum
Teacher Resource: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
Contents
Teacher Resource
Links
Curriculum
Galleries
At the Museum
Facilitated Program
Self-guided Experience
Related Museum Resources
At School
4
5
Classroom Activities
Adult Helper Guide
Photocopy
7
Student Activity Sheets
Photocopy
13
We Dig Dinosaurs Adult Helper Guide (for every adult)
We Dig Dinosaurs Student Activity sheets (for every student)
Western Australian Museum
Teacher Resource: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
3
www.museum.wa.gov.au
2
Links
Curriculum
Life and Living
Students understand their own biology and that of other living
Science
things and recognise the interdependence of life.
Key Messages
1. By investigating fossils, we can Identify, compare and contrast various aspects of a
dinosaur’s habitat, diet and behaviour.
2. The physical features and behaviours of dinosaurs enabled them to survive in
their environment.
Galleries
Western Australia: Land and People
Hackett Hall, Level 1
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Discovery Centre
Hackett Hall, Ground Floor
Western Australian Museum
Teacher Resource: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
3
At the Museum
Facilitated Program
One hour
The facilitated component of We Dig Dinosaurs takes place in one of the
Museum’s learning spaces. It is a hands-on, interactive experience where the
class rotates through five activity stations based on the students becoming
’junior palaeontologists’.
Please have your students split into five groups for this experience. Each group
will require one adult supervisor to assist them with the activities.
Self-guided Experience
Approximately 45 minutes
The self-guided component of We Dig Dinosaurs takes place in the Museum’s
galleries. Using the questions contained within the Adult Helper Guide, group leaders
will be able to assist students to complete their Student Activity sheets and explore
our collection of fossils and dinosaur-related objects.
Please allow for time to explore the galleries before or after your facilitated program.
Maps are available at the Front Desk to assist you in locating these galleries, or please
ask a staff member for directions.
Photocopy
Please bring with you on the day of your excursion:
We Dig Dinosaurs Adult Helper Guide (for every adult)
We Dig Dinosaurs Student Activity sheets (for every student)
Related Museum Resources
Planning Your Excursion
Excursion Management Plan
Excursion Essentials
Available online www.museum.wa.gov.au/education
Publications
Fun stuff for students:
• 3D T-rex mask
• Dinosaur mobiles
Available for purchase, please enquire
at time of booking.
Western Australian Museum
Teacher Resource: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
4
At School
Classroom Activities
From this list, please select some activities that are suitable for the age and
ability of your students.
Focus on a fossil: Read Gogo Fish! The Story of the Western Australian Fossil Emblem
(Long, John; illus: Ruse, Jill) and see the real Gogo Fish fossils when you visit.
Footprints: Find out the size of a well-known dinosaur footprint and draw an
outline on a large sheet of paper. How many students can fit an outline of their own
foot inside it?
Size and scale: Use measuring tapes, rulers and other measuring devices such as
paper strips to compare the heights of different dinosaurs to everyday objects and
familiar buildings. Remember that not all dinosaurs were massive and many could
easily fit through the classroom door!
Classification: Discuss herbivores and carnivores, examining pictures of each to
determine common distinguishing features such as teeth, claws and limb size/
shape. Create a chart in the classroom to show dinosaurs in these categories and
add other animals (including humans) to the chart.
Exploring through the arts: Re-write familiar songs to a dinosaur theme and
add some creative hand or body actions, e.g. ‘Five Little Ducks’ becomes ‘Five
Little Dinosaurs’.
My pet dinosaur. Make dinosaur eggs out of balloons and papier-maché. Paint
white and then cut the top open. Make a sock puppet dinosaur to pop out the top.
Preparing for the Museum Excursion: Before visiting the Museum, create a
‘mind map’ of the facts that the class know about dinosaurs.
Find out more: Use a variety of books and online resources to research dinosaurs
seen at the Museum – Muttaburrasaurus, Carnotaurus, Gorgosaurus and
Tyrannosaurus rex.
Dinosaurs around the world: When researching dinosaurs and fossils from
around the world, place coloured pins with the dinosaurs names on a world
map. Where are most of the fossils found? Which dinosaurs have been found
in Australia?
Describe-a-saur: Palaeontologists had to use clues from fossils to guess what
dinosaurs looked like. What would it be like to draw something that you did not
know a lot about. In pairs, give each student a picture of a dinosaur. One has
to describe the dinosaur to the other, who has to draw it without looking at the
picture. Encourage students to describe features such as teeth, limbs, protection
plates, neck length, etc.
Western Australian Museum
Teacher Resource: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
5
Dinosaur bodies – structure and function: Make dinosaur bones out of
modelling clay or white pipe cleaners. Discuss how the shape of these bones
has a specific purpose; eg teeth are sharp or flat for grinding, limb bones are
long for striding or reaching, ribs are curved to protect organs and the skull is
thick to protect the brain.
Colour or camouflage?: Collect a variety of dinosaur colouring-in pages and give
one to each class member. Instruct half the class to use camouflaging colours and
the other half to use ‘mate-attracting’ colours. Hide all pictures in a small garden
area and then give students 30 seconds to find as many as they can. Discuss
findings and the benefits of different skin colours, explaining that scientists have
used other clues to guess what colour dinosaurs were. Investigate other reptiles
and their skin colour.
Design-a-saur: Draw plans for a ‘new’ dinosaur, including special features to:
• capture or collect food
• eat food
• hide from danger
• move from place to place
• call or attract a mate
• defend itself in a fight.
Use modelling clay to make the dinosaur in 3D, adding features with toothpicks,
pipe cleaners, feathers, small shells and coloured markers.
Survival and extinction theories: Make a list on the board (using words or simple
pictures) in two categories:
• things that helped dinosaurs survive (such as food, water, new eggs,
sunshine, plants etc).
•things that may have contributed to extinction (such as volcanoes,
predators, cooler climate, meteorites etc).
Each class member can draw a picture of one of the things on the board. Stick
coloured card on the back so all pictures look the same. Use these to play a
‘survival of the fittest’ game where class members stand in a circle, each member
turning a card over, sitting down if they turn an ‘extinction’ card over.
Western Australian Museum
Teacher Resource: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
6
Western Australian Museum
Perth
K-3
Early Childhood
We Dig Dinosaurs
Adult Helper Guide
Photocopy
We Dig Dinosaurs Adult Helper Guide (for every adult).
How To Use This Guide
Use the questions contained within the Adult Helper Guide to encourage discussion
while you explore our collection of fossils and dinosaur-related objects with your
group of students.
This guide will identify which Student Activity Sheet/s should be completed in
each gallery.
Please allow approximately 45 minutes additional time for self-guided gallery exploration
using Student Activity Sheets and Adult Helper Guide.
Galleries
You will visit three galleries. The following icons are used within this document and the
Student Activity Sheets to identify which gallery you should be in.
Western Australia: Land and People
Hackett Hall, Level 1
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Discovery Centre
Hackett Hall, Ground Floor
Western Australian Museum
Adult Helper Guide: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
7
Western Australia: Land and People
Hackett Hall, Level 1
Western Australia: Land and People
Hackett Hall, Level 1
Creep up on
Carnotaurus
Mark the following:
• Its sharp, meat-eating teeth.
• Its bull-like horns.
• Its sharp claws, which it used to
catch its prey.
Draw a close-up of the
Carnotaurus’ skin in the
magnifying glass.
Creep up on Carnotaurus
Is this dinosaur real? How do you know?
Carnotaurus bones were found in Argentina and it was one of the
most complete dinosaur skeletons ever found. That’s how the
museum could make such a good model.
The Museum used information about the Carnotaurus skeleton to
create the shape of its body, and looked at some fossilised skin to
design all the lumps and bumps on the outside.
Fossils change colour when they turn to rock, so how do you
think we decided what colour the Carnotaurus would be?
Looking at plants that may have been used for camouflage.
Comparing to modern-day reptiles.
Dinosaurs were reptiles… can you see any other
reptiles around?
Small lizard and turtle underneath the Carnotaurus model.
Large python on display.
Ask one of the Museum staff if they know when Carnotaurus is
due to ROAR!
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
Western Australian Museum
Adult Helper Guide: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
8
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
A Dinosaur from Down Under!
Find the Muttaburrasaurus.
Look carefully at its skeleton and
draw it inside this body.
A Dinosaur Down Under!
Look at Muttaburrasaurus’ flat teeth – what did it eat?
Plants. Muttaburrasaurus had strong jaws and flat teeth for eating
tough vegetation.
What is the special name for plant eater?
Herbivore
Draw some Muttaburrasaurus
footprints.
Muttaburrasaurus langdoni
Muttaburrasaurus bones were
found near a Queensland town
called Muttaburra.
Colour Queensland on this map
of Australia.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
What other body parts helped it eat its food?
Long arms and neck to reach tall branches.
Show with your arms how a Muttaburrasaurus might reach the
tallest branches.
Can you see the lump on its’ head?
Many scientists believe that Muttaburrasaurus’ bulging skull was for
making loud calls.
Can you make a sound that a Muttaburrasaurus might
have made?
Western Australian Museum
Adult Helper Guide: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
9
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
‘T-riffic’ T-rex
Find the skull of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Draw some sharp teeth in the mouth of T-rex.
T-rex
Circle the meal that T-rex might have eaten.
A meat eater is called a
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
‘T-riffic’ T-rex
Look at the T-rex’s teeth – what do you think it ate? Why? What
word can we use for Meat-eaters?
Carnivore. T-rex feasted on many types of dinosaurs with their sharp,
banana-shaped teeth. Scientists believe that T-rex would grow new
teeth if it lost any, just like a crocodile.
Find the thick hadrosaur thigh bone around the corner.
Hadrosaurs were a duck-billed group of dinosaurs. It is likely T-rex would
have eaten hadrosaurs like Parasaurolophus or Corythosaurus.
Ask students to point to their thigh bone.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
T-rex had binocular vision – see how its eyes are facing
forward? How do you think that helped it to survive?
To judge depth and distance – they could locate prey to eat and easily
spot any threats.
What other animals have forward facing eyes?
Predators like hawks, owls, cats, lions, people. Animals such as
monkeys that need to judge distances to move though trees.
What other senses can they use when hunting?
Hearing, smell, touch. Some animals, like snakes, can even
sense heat.
Western Australian Museum
Adult Helper Guide: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
10
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Fossil Hunt
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Fossil Hunt
Find these fossils.
Draw a line to the animal or plant that it came from.
How do we know about Dinosaurs?
Humans were not around when dinosaurs were alive so we need to
use the clues left behind by fossils.
What can we tell from dinosaur leg bones?
How they moved, how fast they ran, how many legs they
walked on.
It’s Egg-citing!
Find the nest of dinosaur eggs.
What can the shape of dinosaur teeth tell us?
What they ate, whether they were predators or not.
Draw a baby dinosaur inside this egg.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
How many of these kinds of animals in the display can still be
found today?
Examples include prawn, cuttlefish, fish, dragonfly, cockroach
and wasp.
Encourage children to discover as many different kinds of
fossils as they can in the gallery.
Examples include bones, plants, teeth, eggs, tracks and shells.
How are fossils formed?
Fossils are preserved remains of plants and animals that may have
been covered with mud. Some fossils are prints that may have
been left behind in mud. Over millions of years they have turned
into rock.
It’s Egg-citing
Find the nest of dinosaur eggs from China. Can you guess what
might be inside?
Scientists can use special X-rays – called CAT scans, to look
inside fossilised dinosaur eggs without breaking them. They
sometimes find the fossilised skeletons of baby dinosaurs
inside their eggs.
Western Australian Museum
Adult Helper Guide: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
11
Discovery Centre
Hackett Hall, Ground Floor
Discovery Centre
Hackett Hall, Ground Floor
Tools of the Trade
Find the palaeontology display.
Draw a line to match each tool to the way it is used.
Palaeontologists store
small fossils in this.
Tools of the Trade
Find the Palaeontology display in the corner (near the bookshelf).
What is a palaeontologist?
A palaeontologist is a scientist who finds and studies fossils of animals
and plants that lived long ago.
Look in the drawers beneath the display and find these things:
•a dinosaur footprint
Can you guess how long its steps were? Can you show me?
•a Tyrannosaurus claw
How might Tyrannosaurus have used this? Can you show me?
Palaeontologists
brush sand away
from fragile fossils.
Palaeontologists
measure the size
of a fossil.
Palaeontologists use
this to break fossils
out of rocks.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
•a Massosponylus skull
Ask students to guess how big this dinosaur might have been.
Can you show me?
Western Australian Museum
Adult Helper Guide: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
12
Western Australian Museum
Perth
K-3
Early Childhood
We Dig Dinosaurs
Student Activity Sheets
Photocopy
We Dig Dinosaurs Student Activity sheets (for every student).
How To Use Student Activity Sheets
Use the questions contained within the Adult Helper Guide to encourage
discussion while students use their Student Activity sheets.
Galleries
You will visit three galleries. The following icons are used within this document
and the Student Activity sheets to identify which gallery you should be in.
Western Australia: Land and People
Hackett Hall, Level 1
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Discovery Centre
Hackett Floor,Ground Floor
Western Australian Museum
Student Activity Sheets: We Dig Dinosaurs
© 2009
www.museum.wa.gov.au
13
Western Australian Museum
Perth
Student Activity
We Dig Dinosaurs
Explore our
collection of fossils
and dinosaurrelated objects.
www.museum.wa.gov.au
14
Western Australia: Land and People
Hackett Hall, Level 1
Creep up on
Carnotaurus
Mark the following:
• Its sharp, meat-eating teeth.
• Its bull-like horns.
• Its sharp claws, which it used to
catch its prey.
Draw a close-up of the
Carnotaurus’ skin in the
magnifying glass.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
15
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
A Dinosaur from Down Under!
Find the Muttaburrasaurus.
Look carefully at its skeleton and
draw it inside this body.
Draw some Muttaburrasaurus
footprints.
Muttaburrasaurus langdoni
Muttaburrasaurus bones were
found near a Queensland town
called Muttaburra.
Colour Queensland on this map
of Australia.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
16
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
‘T-riffic’ T-rex
Find the skull of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Draw some sharp teeth in the mouth of T-rex.
T-rex
Circle the meal that T-rex might have eaten.
A meat eater is called a
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
17
Diamonds to Dinosaurs
Jubilee Wing, Level 2
Fossil Hunt
Find these fossils.
Draw a line to the animal or plant that it came from.
It’s Egg-citing!
Find the nest of dinosaur eggs.
Draw a baby dinosaur inside this egg.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
18
Discovery Centre
Hackett Hall, Ground Floor
Tools of the Trade
Find the palaeontology display.
Draw a line to match each tool to the way it is used.
Palaeontologists st
ore
small fossils in this
.
Palaeontologists
brush sand away
from fragile fossils.
Palaeontologists
measure the size
of a fossil.
Palaeontologists us
e
this to break fossils
out of rocks.
© 2009: Approved for classroom use only.
19