Skull – Teeth Observation and Inference

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DRIVING QUESTION

How can we use fossil skulls or teeth to make inferences about diet and other behaviors?
Is it possible to determine what the environment might have been like based upon fossil evidence?

LEARNING GOALS

Think of learning goals as the consequence or product of the 3 dimensions associated with the performance expectation(s) of your lesson. Please don’t put NGSS expectations here. There is a table below for that. To identify the 3 dimensions on your performance expectation, we recommend you use the NSTA platform:

http://ngss.nsta.org/AccessStandardsByDCI.aspx

COLLABORATIONS

Students are placed in mixed skill groups. Within each group there were defined roles:

1. Timekeeper – keeps the group on task and watches the time.
2. Materials manager – Collects specimens for the group and returns them as needed. This person is also responsible for the care and handling of the specimen.
3. Reporter/ spokesperson – This person acts as the presenter during the class debrief.
4. Skeptic/ questioner – Keeps the group engaged poses questions that may deepen the discussion and lead to new ideas.

STEM INTEGRATION

For this activity fossils may be printed over the summer as this activity is done early in the school year. (In the future I plan to incorporate students in the printing process more. I did have the printer working during class so students could see the process. We also discussed the software and I showed students what this looks like).

ASSESSMENT

Google Doc: Skull Drawing/Observation Grid

Students will complete pre-lab predictions and complete a matrix as they make their observations. Students will complete a scientific illustration, make observations and inferences for each tooth.

This lab serves as the first in a two lab sequence.

The lab will be assessed formatively with comments made on student work to encourage revision during the second lab where students will use their observations from this lab to recreate a food web.

How will your assessment incorporate student understanding of the 3 dimensions of learning – disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and scientific/engineering practices?

1. a) Formative assessments: This lab will have formative assessment through comments made on work by peers and teacher.

An opportunity for revision will be provided.

The observations and revisions students make will be applied to reconstructing a food web and creating a poster that will be formatively assessed using a rubric.

1. b) Summative assessment(s): Students will complete the Skull Drawing/Observation Grid.

ANCHORING EVENT & PROCEDURE

DAY 1: ENGAGEMENT

I ask students if they had ever found a bone while hiking or walking on the beach. Did they wonder what animal it was or what that animal ate or how it lived? I also show them a 3D printed Durodon tooth to get them thinking and discussing how that might help them determine diet and lifestyle.

Guiding question “How do paleontologists use fossils to learn about the past?”

DAY 2-3: EXPLORATION

Students are given sets of 3D printed fossil skulls and or teeth to observe. They will record observations and make inferences about possible diet and lifestyle.

Driving questions:

How can we use fossil skulls or teeth to make inferences about diet and other behaviors?
Is it possible to determine what the environment might have been like based upon fossil evidence?

DAY 3-4: EXPLORATION & ELABORATION

Students make prediction about diet and lifestyle, then discuss in groups. Students also attempt to identify the skulls and teeth. These predictions will be written on a data sheet and students will use evidence from observations to explain inferences and predictions.

DAY 5: EVALUATE

Students share their inferences.

STANDARDS

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS (NGSS)

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Insert Performance Expectation

COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS (CCSS)

Math – High School modeling

Literacy – CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.7

Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.

Other Standards

P21:

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving:

• Reason Effectively
• Use Systems Thinking
• Make Judgements
• Solve Problems

Communication & Collaboration:

• Communicate Clearly
• Collaborate w/Others

Flexibility & Adaptability

• Be Flexible

Social & Cross-Cultural Skills

• Interact effectively with others
• Work effectively in diverse teams
• Be responsible to others
• Produce results

4C’s:

• Critical Thinking
• Collaboration

RESOURCES & MATERIALS

What Can Fossil Teeth Tell Us? | Your Inner Fish

What Can I Learn From a Skull? – Lakeside Nature Center

Suggested STL Files

Scientific Name	Common Name	Link to Database	Screen Shot
Smilodon fatalis	Saber-toothed tiger	www.morphosource.org/index.php/Detail/MediaDetail/Show/media_id/7786
Otocyon megalotis	Bat-eared Fox	http://digimorph.org/specimens/Otocyon_megalotis/male/
Rattus norvegicus	Brown rat	https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:492518
Physeter macrocephalus	Sperm whale	https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:17785

KEY ACADEMIC AND/OR SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE

Paleontology Glossaries:

• Palaeos
• FossilMall

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

This is a great activity early in the year to stimulate Critical Thinking and/or at the start of an Ecology unit.

Students don’t need deep prerequisite knowledge for this activity as this activity will help them lay the groundwork for Critical Thinking/Ecology Unit.

The little prerequisite knowledge students will need to use is:

• different animals have different diets and behaviors within an ecosystem.

prior knowledge of the terms: herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.