Students learn the three rock groups and then focus on how sediments make sedimentary rock, and how fossils form. They work in groups to see how seashells can make a fossil mold, and they get their hands on real coral reef fossils dating to the Silurian Period. Then the naturalist takes them down to the park's quarry to test their fossil ID skills (please note that fossils must remain within the quarry).
1-1/2 to 2 hours
Stand-Alone Program: $3.50/person.
Program with caving: included in caving cost.
STANDARDS
SCI.LS2.B.5 Matter cycles between air and soil and among organisms as they live and die
SCI.LS4.A.3 Fossils provide evidence about the types of organisms and environments that existed long ago
SCI.LS4.C.3 Particular organisms can only survive in particular environments
SCI.LS4.A.m The fossil record documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms and their environments through Earth's history
SCI.ESS1.C.4 Certain features on Earth can be used to order events that have occurred in a landscape
SCI.ESS1.C.m Rock strata and the fossil record can be used as evidence to organize the relative occurrence of major historical events in Earth's history
SCI.ESS2.e.m The fossil record documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms throughout history
ELS.C1.C.e Explore outdoors
ELS.EX2.C.e Identify ways in which people are dependent on natural resources