Is It a Dinosaur?
This material was originally created for
On the Cutting Edge: Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Jonathan Geisler, Georgia Southern University
Course: Dinosaurs, Extinctions, and Disasters
65 students
Course: Dinosaurs, Extinctions, and Disasters
65 students
Students are more likely to remember a definition when they have struggled to figure it out, first.
The Activity
One of the major misconceptions students have about dinosaurs is that anything large and extinct is a dinosaur. I show them a series of pictures of extinct animals and ask them to decide if it is a dinosaur or not. Some are easy while others are more difficult. After they are "stumped" a few times, then I go on to show the features that characterize all dinosaurs.
