More About This Resource...

• In this classroom activity, created to complement the Museum's Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries exhibit, middle school students explore the Greek and Latin root words used to create dinosaur names.

  • The activity opens with background information for teachers about how dinosaurs are named.
  • As a class, students explore the Greek and Latin roots of the wordsphotograph, terrace and other familiar terms.
  • Working individually, students complete a worksheet that challenges them to translate the meaning of seven dinosaurs' names.
  • Then, working in pairs, students create their own dinosaur; name it; and describe how it moves, what it eats, how it raises it young, and how it behaves.

• Completion Time

  Approximately 1 period

• Topic

  Paleontology

• Subtopic

  General

• Subtopic

  National Science Education Standards
  Grades 5-8:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

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

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor• nature of science

• Learning Standard

  National Science Education Standards
  Grades 5-8:
  Science as Inquiry CONTENT STANDARD A: 

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

  History and Nature of Science CONTENT STANDARD G: 

  • science as a human endeavor• nature of science