Monday 3 August 2009

Making your own 'fossil' trails

'Trail-making; making your own "fossil" animal trails' is our latest Earthlearningidea.
First of all your pupils need to do some 'trail-thinking' by asking themselves why would the animal have been on the sand, in which direction was it moving, how would it have been moving, how fast, how deep would the trail be, would it have been straight, would the animal have rested and how could the trail become fossilised?
When pupils have completed this activity, they will be able to describe how animals of the past might have moved, use their descriptions to make appropriate trail marks in damp sand and explain how the trails they have made give information on how the animals moved in the past.
Of course, they can make many types of trails from those left by trilobites to those of dinosaurs.
We should be very pleased to receive your pupils' ideas and photos of their trails, if possible.

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