Slicing Fossils
Summary
Learning Goals
After successfully completing this exercise, students will be able to sketch slices through a few invertebrate fossils at a variety of angles, and will be able to recognize randomly oriented slices through these same fossils. They will be able to recognize a variety of fossils from fragments in fossiliferous rock samples.
Context for Use
This exercise is designed to help students make the leap from being able to recognize whole fossils to being able to recognize fossils from random 2D slices through them.
Description and Teaching Materials
Students work through a series of exercises, from multiple choice questions about slices through individual fossils to identifying fossils in samples of coquina.
Sliced fossils exercise (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 8.6MB May19 15)
Teaching Notes and Tips
This exercise was developed as part of a set of exercises to support 3D visualization skills. These exercises had an intended order. Instructors can pick and choose the exercises, but the order we intended was as follows:
Assessment
I look over student answers to the questions to see how well they are able to identify the fossils on the final page of the exercise.
References and Resources
Using Gesture to Support Spatial Thinking highlights the value of gesture in communicating spatial information. It consists of two short exercises, and can be used in preparation for any other exercise in which students will be asked to use gesture to communicate spatial information.