Lesson Plan: Sedimentary Rocks and Fossils
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to describe the formation of fossils and identify how fossils can be used to determine the environment and age an organism lived in.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- review fossils and describe how they are formed,
- identify the different types of fossils,
- define rock strata,
- understand that rock layers can be disrupted by Earth’s processes such as volcanoes and earthquakes,
- understand the fossil record,
- describe the geologic time scale,
- describe how fossils can be used to determine an organism’s environment and the age it lived in.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- the formation of sedimentary rock strata,
- the basic definition of fossils,
- metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rocks,
- deposition of rock.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- comparing fossils to modern organisms,
- the process of evolution as it relates to fossils of similar organisms,
- the age of Earth.
