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Website: www.lrl.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/Recreation/Lakes/CaesarCreekLake.aspx
Caesar Creek Lake- All educational programs offered at Caesar Creek are free!
Program Description: Students on this class trip will visit Caesar Creek Lake Visitor Center and sign a free fossil collecting permit. Students will attend a Fossil Talk program given by a ranger where they will learn about fossils from the Ordovician Sea such as corals, trilobites, shells, and many more marine fossils. Following the Fossil Talk, students will be given the opportunity to collect a fossil from the emergency spillway, which is accessible for beginners and school-aged children.
Ohio State Learning Standard: 4.LS.2 Fossils can be compared to one another and to present-day organisms according to their similarities and differences.
Pre- Classroom Activity:
To help my students build basic knowledge on what they will learn about during the Fossil Talk at Caesar Creek Lake, they will watch Hank Green’s YouTube video How to Find Thousands of Oceanic Fossils in… Ohio? This video discusses Caesar Creek Lake and its emergency spillway, which is abundant in fossils such as trilobites, crinoids, gastropods, cephalopods, bryozoans, and coral. In this video, Green explains that these marine fossils are from the Ordovician Period when Ohio’s region was covered in a shallow sea located below the equator prior to migrating northward as Pangea formed. Following the video, I will review which fossils can be found at Caesar Creek Lake and read Fossils Tell Stories by Yu-ri Kim.
Post- Classroom Activity:
Using the fossils collected from Caesar Creek, student will complete a post-trip classroom activity where students will draw their fossil, identify the fossil, and identify what modern-day organism the fossil can be connected to. From here, students will work with their elbow partner and identify similarities and differences between their two fossils!
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