Reply To: K-5 lesson plans–Santa Cruz, California

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#2381
Victor Perez
Participant

I noticed looking through the images that many of the fallen blocks have lenses of molluscs. I think a good field activity/lesson could be to have students try to reorient the block. In other words, determine which side is right side up. They could do this by looking at shell orientation and by relating to the in situ cliff stratigraphy. This could be tied into the 4th grade standard that addresses stratigraphy and the law of superposition.

Also, it would be interesting to compare and contrast with the East Coast. The Calvert Cliffs would be ideal because the depositional environments are similar (despite the age difference). This would relate to the 3rd grade standard that addresses fossil distribution.

I’m happy to help with putting together the fossil kits in any way that I can. If you do choose to use the Calvert Cliffs as an analog, I can also help get fossils from there to add to the kits.