ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: 1. Fossils are formed in specific ways.  2. Scientists have learned much from fossils 3. The extinction of dinosaurs can teach us important lessons.
Goal(s): 1. Students will understand how prehistoric animals may have become extinct.  2. Students will conduct internet research to write a dinosaur report.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. Why are fossils a key to the past?  2. Where would you look to find fossils?  3.How do scientists learn from fossils?  4. How do scientists categorize dinosaurs?  5. How would our lives be different if dinosaurs were not extinct?  6. Is there a dinosaur that you don’t know about but would like to know more about?
Objectives: 1. Students will explain how fossils are made and found. 2. Students will describe what scientists have learned from fossils. 3. Students will identify different kinds of dinosaurs. 4. Students will conduct researh and write a report on a dinosaur.  5. Students will conduct a favorite dinosaur survey and graph results. 6. Students will create dinosaur addition/subtraction word problems. 7. Students will create a dinosaur poem to accompany a visual representation.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
Students will complete an end of the unit formal assessment with content focused questions in the form of matching, multiple choice, and illustration completion. What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
1. Students will write a non-fictional story about dinosaurs using a rubric to ensure a quality project. 2. Students will also work with a partner and brainstorm ideas on how our world would be different if dinosaurs were not extinct and then share those ideas with the class.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? 1. Students will incorporate their research into a dinosaur report using a rubric. 2. Students will also use pastels to draw a dinosaur with an authentic background to be used as a visual representation for their poem.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? 1. The students’ Kid-Pix Create-a-saurus pictures will be put into a slide show for other audiences. 2. The students’ reports will be put into a PowerPoint presentation for other audiences. 3.  Each student will create true and false statements that will be used in a Dino-Review game. 4. Students will complete a dinosaur packet which will enhance the unit.

Instructional Strategies

Inquiry-based and project-based strategies were used throughtout the completeion of the dinosaur related projects. Through student cooperation and group interaction students helped determine which strategies would work best to research extinct animals, create reports, and finalize projects. Active involvement created students’ ownership in learning about unheard of dinosaurs. The internet research created an awareness and a hands-on activity for student carry-over to other research that will continue throughout second grade and into real life situations. The pride the students had in sharing their end products was truly rewarding for the students as well as for me.