More About This Resource...

• This activity is designed to enhance a visit to the Museum's Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries exhibit. The printable one-page PDF handout, which focuses on the study of trackways, includes the following activities.

  • Using an illustration with several sets of footprints, students try to answer a series of questions about dinosaur behavior.
  • Students then create their own trackways and examine differences in stride.

• Teacher Tip

  Supplement a study of paleontology with a classroom activity drawn from this student handout, which was created for the Museum's Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries exhibit.

  1. Ask students: What do you think scientists can learn by studying footprints?
  2. Give copies of the activity to students. Have students study the illustration and try to answer the six questions about the trackways shown, working individually or in pairs.
  3. Ask for volunteers of different heights to participate in the Make Your Own Trackway! experiment. Once participants have been selected, ask the class to speculate about what differences they will see in the trackways. Then, after conducting the experiment, discuss the results. Did they match students' hypotheses? Why or why not? What other factors affected the results?

• Topic

  Paleontology

• Subtopic

  Fossil Dinosaurs and Birds

• Subtopic

  National Science Education Standards
  Grades K-4:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

  • abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry• understanding about scientific inquiry

  Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C: 

  • the characteristics of organisms• organisms and environments

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor

  Grades 5-8:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

  • abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry• understanding about scientific inquiry

  Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C: 

  • structure and function in living systems• populations and ecosystems

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor• nature of science

  Grades 9-12:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

  • abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry• understanding about scientific inquiry

  Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C: 

  • behavior of organisms

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor• nature of scientific knowledge

• Learning Standard

  National Science Education Standards
  Grades K-4:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

  • abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry• understanding about scientific inquiry

  Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C: 

  • the characteristics of organisms• organisms and environments

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor

  Grades 5-8:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

  • abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry• understanding about scientific inquiry

  Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C: 

  • structure and function in living systems• populations and ecosystems

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor• nature of science

  Grades 9-12:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

  • abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry• understanding about scientific inquiry

  Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C: 

  • behavior of organisms

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor• nature of scientific knowledge