Science Explorers: Professional Development > Paleo-Explorers Workshop

Science Explorers
Paleo-Explorers Workshops

Dinosaurs, Fossils, and Ancient Ecosystems

Dinosaurs
In this workshop students and teachers will build a life-size dinosaur. While they piece together the vertebrae, jawbones, and ribs of two species of dinosaurs, they will examine the evolution of these amazing creatures. Participants will use modeling clay to design and attach key muscles to dinosaur skeletons in order to understand how the shape and size of these muscles and bones determine where a particular specimen belongs on the dinosaur family tree.

Fossils
During this workshop, students and teachers will engage in a geo-safari based on the research of a true Paleo-ecologist from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Teachers and students will examine fossils from the ancient coastal area of Eastern Wyoming as they sift through the dirt, rock, and sand from the Lance Formation. By identifying and classifying microfossils such as shark bones and salamander teeth, and by making molds of a duckbilled dinosaur’s claws, teeth and toes, participants will reconstruct a 66 million-year-old ecosystem.

Ancient Ecosystems
Recent paleontological research has shown that leaf fossils can be used as ancient climate thermometers. During this workshop, students and teachers will act as real paleontologists, using leaf margin analysis to determine the prehistoric climate in Eastern Wyoming. Participants will measure, graph, and analyze data gathered from actual leaf fossils from the Lance Formation. They will use their results to illustrate and describe the unique climate that existed there during the Cretaceous period and to understand climate change as a recurring process in Earth’s history.

Featured CU Scientist

For more details about the workshops, including how they address Colorado Science Standards, please contact Hester Nadel at 303-492-8640 or nadel@colorado.edu.