Discovery Quest K-1. Chaperone Guide

Transcription

1 Discovery Quest K-1 Chaperone Guide Chaperone: Partner this guide with the K-1 Discovery Quest Worksheet. This guide will help you lead students through the natural history exhibits of the Pink Palace Museum. Bold words are to be read aloud. Italicized words are instructions for an activity Skeletons: Match! Introduction: Begin near the boa constrictor skeleton This is the skeletons gallery. Here we can see the skeletons of lots of different animals. As we look around, I want you to look at the different types of teeth each skeleton has. Some animals have sharp, pointy teeth. Sharp teeth are good to have if you are an animal that hunts other animals for food. An animal that hunts other animals is called a Predator. Can everyone say predator? Some animals do not have sharp pointy teeth. Some Animals have teeth that are flat and shaped like squares. Animals with flat, square teeth do not hunt other animals; they are usually the animal that is being hunted! An animal that is hunted by other animals is called prey. Can everyone say prey? Who has sharp teeth for hunting? Predators. And what do we call the animal that the predator is hunting? Prey. Instructions: Students will complete a matching activity matching drawings of animal skulls to drawings of the animals the skulls belong to. Now we are going to do a matching activity. It is the activity with pictures of skulls and pictures of animals. We will look at the skulls of animals in the display cases and match the skulls to the animals they belong to on our sheets. Hint: looking at the teeth in the skulls will help us match the skull to the animal.

2 Answer: Conclusion: Now that we have matched all the animals and looked at the skulls, let s see if we can guess who is a predator and who is prey. Answer: Lion=Predator, Rabbit = Prey, Crocodile = Predator, Giraffe = Prey, Deer = Prey. Introduction: Begin near the Butterfly display Insects: Draw! This is the insect gallery. Here we can see butterflies from around the world. Before we look at the butterflies we are going to learn a new word. The new word is symmetry. Can everyone try saying symmetry? Something has symmetry when one half of the object is a mirror image of the other half of the object. Or when one half looks exactly the same as the other half. Everyone put your hands together to make a butterfly. See how your left hand is the mirror image of your right hand? The line of symmetry, or the point where the two mirror images meet, is where your palms meet. Where is the line of symmetry on a butterfly? Right down the middle of the butterfly s body. Let s look at the butterflies in the cases and look for symmetry.

3 Instructions: Students will complete the drawing of the butterfly on the other side of the dotted line. Note, this drawing does not represent any particular butterfly on display. Now we are going to do a drawing activity. It is the activity with a picture showing half of a butterfly. We are going to draw the other half of the butterfly. We learned that butterflies are symmetrical so when we draw the other half of the butterfly, make it look like the half that is already on the paper. Answer: Conclusion: Now that we have drawn a butterfly, let s check that it is symmetrical. Fold your paper on the dotted line and see if both sides matched up. This is a good way to look for symmetry. If you can fold something in half and it is the same on both sides, it is symmetrical. Are humans symmetrical? Where is our line of symmetry? Answer: Humans are symmetrical and our line of symmetry is down the middle of our bodies. Mid-South Mammals: Check! Introduction: Begin by the Doe and fawn before entering the exhibit We are about to go on a special nature trail to see some animals that live here near us in the Mid- South. All of these animals are mammals. Mammals are animals that: Have hair or fur Produce milk to feed their young

4 Give live birth. A live birth means the animal is not born in a shell like an egg. Are you a mammal? Do you have hair? Yes! Do mothers produce milk for babies? Yes! Are human babies born in eggs? No, humans have live births. You are a mammal! Now we are going to go look for some more mammals. Instructions: Students will look at the mammals as you walk through the Mid-South Mammals gallery. As they find the animals in the display that match the silhouettes on their sheets, they will put a check by the animal. This is the activity with pictures of 6 different animals with boxes by their names. Look at the picture of the animals on your sheet. Then, look for the animals as we hike through the gallery. When you see the animal, you can check it off your list. Answer: Conclusion: Now that we are done with our mammal search, let s review. Do all of the animals on your list have fur? Yes! You may not know this but all the animals on your list produce milk to feed their young. Do any of the animals on your list lay eggs? No! This means all the animals on your list are what? Mammals! Can anyone name an animal that is not a mammal? Answer: Bird, reptiles, and amphibians are not mammals. They all lay eggs, lack fur, and do not nurse their young.

5 Geology: Search! Introduction: Begin by the large, low display that has 3 large mineral samples in it. We are now in the geology gallery. Geology is the study of rocks and minerals. Someone who studies geology is called a geologist. There are lots of types of rocks and minerals so geologists had to come up with some ways to sort all the rocks and minerals they found. One of the ways they sort minerals is by color. Can you see minerals of lots of different colors here? Yes! Once a geologist discovers a new mineral, they give it a special name like quartz. Minerals that are similar get sorted into groups together. For example, this big white mineral here (Giant white/clear quartz crystal at the entrance of the gallery labeled Q on the map below) and small black mineral here (Case 3 from left to right, top shelf, 4 th from the right) are both part of the quartz group. Can you see how they are similar? How they are different? Instructions: Students will look at the 5 display cases behind the low display case containing three large mineral samples only. They will count the number of yellow rocks, the number of pink rocks, and the number of purple rocks. Some of the colors are faint and students might not identify the color. For this reason, there is a range of answers on the answer sheet. Note, new cases are added to this room from time to time. For older students, ask them to write down the name of one rock of each color. Now we are going to do a searching activity. This is the activity with color words and big letters on it. You are going to look only in the 5 cases right here during this activity. First, you are going to count the number of YELLOW rocks you see. Second, you are going to count the number of PINK rocks you see. Third, you are going to count the number of PURPLE rocks you see. You will write down the number you counted for each color on your sheet on the lines. Or Search for a YELLOW, a PINK, and a PURPLE mineral. Write down the name of a mineral that is each color in the blank. Answer: Yellow = 2-3 Pink = 3-5 Purple = 5-8+ (additional cases of amethyest and purple quartz may be in this space from time to time) *During the renovation period, the numbers are subject to change as items are moved

6 Conclusion: There were lots of different colors of minerals weren t there. What were some other colors you noticed? What are some other ways a geologist could sort the minerals? Answer: Shiny, Dull, Shape, Size, Weight, Where they were found. Dinosaur &Mosasaur: Color! Introduction: Begin by Dinosaur tracks on the ground before you enter the Dinosaur gallery. We are about to start a journey through time and our journey begins by learning about fossils. Fossils are the remains or traces of creatures that lived in the past. There are two types of Fossils. The first type of fossil is a remain. A fossil remain is formed from something that was once a part of a creatures body like its bones. The second type of fossil is a trace fossil. A trace fossil is a fossil that was never a part of a creature s body but was made by the creature. Examples of trace fossils are dinosaur foot prints, dinosaur egg shells, and coprolite (CAH-pro-lite). Coprolite is a fancy word for dino poop! Now we are going to look at some fossils, these dinosaur footprints. Are these trace fossils or remains? They are trace fossils! Instructions: Students will measure the size of the dinosaur foot prints in the display on the floor by counting how tall and how wide it is compared to their hand. Students are allowed to touch this display but they are discouraged from climbing and standing on the display or using the display as a tool for writing on.

7 This is a measuring activity. This activity is the one with pictures of a dinosaur footprint and human hands. Each of you is going to measure how tall and how wide the dinosaur footprint is with your hand. Find out how many of your hands it would take to equal the height of the dinosaur footprint. Then, measure how many of your handprints wide the foot print is. You can circle the number of your hands it took to measure the footprint on your sheet. Do not climb on the display. If you need a hard surface to draw on, use the floor, not the display. Answer: Conclusion: As we go through the next dinosaur gallery, I want you to look at some of the fossils you see and guess if they are remains or trace fossils. Remains were once part of a creature s body. Trace fossils were something a creature left behind that was never part of its body.

8 Review Introduction: Optional Let s see what everyone remembers from our visit. 1. An animal that hunts other animals for food is called a Predator. 2. An animal that a predator hunts is called Prey. 3. If we folded a butterfly in half, it would look the same on both sides because a butterfly has Symmetry. 4. Mammals all have three things in common. One, mammals have fur/hair 5. Two, mammals produce milk for their young 6. Three, mammals give live birth. 7. Someone who studies rocks is called a Geologist. 8. There are two types of fossils, trace and remains. A fossil that was once part of a creature s body is a Remain. 9. A fossil that was not a part of a creature s body but was left behind by a creature from the past is a Trace fossil.