Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
Welcome to Your Dinosaur Adventure!




Table of Contents
  1. Introduction
  2. Tasks
  3. Process
  4. Evaluation
  5. Conclusion
Introduction
You will be learning about prehistoric creatures - dinosaurs! Prehistoric means things that happened before people wrote information down. Dinosaurs are extinct, often gigantic, carnivores (meat-eaters), herbivores (plant-eaters), or omnivores (eat both plants and meat) that existed millions of years ago. Your guide will be Ms. Frizzle, the teacher from the Magic School Bus adventure series.

This assignment meets the following Pennsylvania Department of Education academic standards: After becoming an expert on your dinosaur you will be able to explain all this cool stuff to your friends: Let's travel back in time and meet some dinosaurs!

Back to top

Tasks
You have been assigned a group, A though D. Each group will be working with a different dinosaur, but answering the same questions. Click on the bus for your group to begin your adventure!


Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Back to top

Process

Use the following websites to answer the questions for your specific dinosaur.

Dinosaur Fact Sheets - Great for finding information once you know your dino's name

Dinosaur Pictures - Great for identifying a dinosaur if you only have a picture

Dinosaurs: Facts & Fiction - Important facts for all dinosaurs

Dinosaur Dictionary - Generic Dinosaur Facts

More Dinosaur Information - Even more random Dinosaur Stuff

After you have learned about your own dinosaur, you will make a diorama showing your dinosaur in its natural habitat (that's where something lives). Include as many details that you learned as you can. Be creative and artistic.

How to make a diorama - Very good information for when you try to make your diorama

Back to top

Evaluation
Your group will be graded based on the following rubric:

Category 4 3 2 1
Organization The information about the dinosaurs is well organized. There are enough fields for the information from the research and each field is labeled correctly. The information about the dinosaurs is organized. There are enough fields for the information from the research; however, some of the information is misplaced. The Information on the dinosaurs is somewhat organized; however, there is not enough information within their data fields. The information on the dinosaurs appears to be disorganized. The data fields are mislabeled and very few facts are included.
Sources Many of the suggested web pages to find information on dinosaurs, including some additional sources. The suggested web pages were used to find information on dinosaurs; however, some of the information from the sources is irrelevant. 1 or 2 Web pages were used to find information on dinosaurs. The remainder of the sources were inaccurate. None of suggested web pages were used to find information on dinosaurs. The findings were inaccurate.
Amount of Information All the topics from the list were addressed and there is enough information present in the database to identify different types of dinosaurs. Most of the topics from the list were addressed. There needs to be more information to assist the audience in identifying the different types of dinosaurs. There were only a few topics from the list that were addressed and the information in the database is very general. The topics that were addressed did not include information about a specific type of dinosaur.
Diorama The display is interesting, attractive and well organized. It is easy to understand the content. The display is well organized. It is easy to understand the content. The display is somewhat organized. It is somewhat difficult to understand the content. The display showed little understanding of the task and/or content.

Back to top

Conclusion
Congratulations on a job well done! You have successfully completed your dinosaur adventure and, hopefully, learned a few things along the way.

Would you like to learn more about dinosaurs? Why or why not? If you enjoyed this adventure then maybe a career in paleontology (those are scientists that dig up bones) is for you.

If you enjoyed your adventure, maybe you would consider other Ms. Frizzle books where she takes her class on wild rides everywhere imaginable.

Back to top