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After getting a hands-on opportunity to go to a local dig site for fossils, I thought this would be perfect topic to teach my students. After going to our school's media center, I noticed there were numerous books about dinosaurs and one book about fish fossils. I reached out to a paleontologist and he stated most paleontolgists do not study dinosaurs.
Kids have this connection between paleontologists and dinosaurs only. Why is that? There is so much more that paleontologists discover in their field finding other prehistoric organisms.
What are your thoughts?
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After consulting Page Keeley, here is her response:
'Thanks for sharing those interesting points about how children think about fossils. There has not been any research that I know of on children's ideas about fossils other than what I included in the probe notes. Sounds like a good topic for someone to do a study!'
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Dinosaurs are always a cool animal for young kids to learn about. They're fascinating!
I wonder if this connection that fossils = dinosaurs is due to the exposure at an early age without reference to other types of fossils. For example, at museums the first fossils typically shown are the attention getters: T-Rex, triceratops, etc. Also, bones are (arguably?) the most easily preserved part of an organism. So non-bony organisms are harder to come by, like plants, fish, insects, etc. These are usually imprints or carbon remains rather than eye-grabbing skeletons.
I just started a unit where the driving phenomenon is a new fossil. Many students asked what it is and that is what they are trying to figure out. We also talked about the variety of fossils: petrified, preserved remains, trace, etc.
I wonder what students would say fossils include? If we were to survey students, across various ages/grade levels, I wonder what patterns we'd see. Would younger studetns focus mostly on bones of dinosaurs? Would older students talk about more variety? Reminds me of a first grade unit where students believe that humans are not animals because they believe animals live in nature while humans do not. Also fascinating to see what the students are thinking and how they reason their ideas!
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I beleive kids have a connection between paleontologists and dinosaurs only because that is what we learned growing up and what we see in movies. When I was younger that is what I thought myself as well probably because of watching Jurassic Park. Then I realized as I got a older that they study all fosslized past life.
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After my students have shown such an interest in dinosaurs I dove into the science behind dinosaurs to try and create a lesson that would be interesting and engaging for them. I had always connected paleontologists were the scientists that study dinosaurs and uncover dinoaur bones. But, it makes sense that dinosaurs are not the only thing that these scientists study. Thank you for sharing this!
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Thank you for your post. I had not even thought of this before, but it makes sense. I need to go and look more into this due to the misinformation that many students and adults have.
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I think dinosaurs really incarnate the impossible. Gigantic creatures that could possibly look inside the third floor of a building, with sharp teeth and vicious claws—this has to be inspiring for students. Even though the image I have drawn might be a little exaggerated, this is what children see. The fact that they were wiped out a long time ago makes them fascinating, maybe even mystical, because all our knowledge is built on paleontological research. This is how paleontologists open the gate to a world of mystery and fascination.
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I think the main reason for this association between dinosaurs and fossils is the innate understanding that many students have between fossils and extinct organisms. It can be difficult for students to understand that some organisms like whales, although currently alive, have also been around long enough for there to be fossilized remains. During our fossil unit, I try to avoid discussing dinosaurs for this reason and tend to focus on organisms such as ammonites, trilobites, and crinoids. My middle schoolers seem to do well with these because they are not focused on both dinosaurs and other organisms.
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I think it is largely because when we think about what paleontologists do (studying remains and fossils) we have a direct association with dinosaurs because that is a common thing most people know about and we can connect fossils and make discoveries to dinosaurs. I think to help combat this, hearing about different paleontologists and the different topics that may be studied can help with our perspective on paleontologists. In addition, bringing up different fossils of things we know and observe in our current world and the past can be helpful too.
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