Activity

What if I told you that I could fit 100 5-million year old fossils right in the palm of your hand? Well that’s exactly what my 4th and 5th grade students did today in our after-school science class. Students were given a small amount of sediment from North Carolina that contained micro-fossils. Students sorted their sediment into 3 piles: 1.  fossils  2.  not fossils   3.  maybe fossils.  I had planned for this activity to take 3o minutes, but the students were so engaged they begged for more. I also put up the fossil identification PDF located on the Aurora Fossil Museum website.  http://aurorafossilmuseum.org/post/20/educational-materials.html

We ended up spending the full hour sorting and identifying these tiny treasures! I was so impressed by the rich conversation students were having with one another as they tried to describe why they felt that certain specimens were fossils.  Thank you to Bruce MacFadden and his amazing crew (through University of Florida and the NSF) for providing the teacher training and sediment bags!