10:10 a.m. MST Register Your Montana Classroom
12:10 p.m. MST Register Your Montana Classroom
Grades: 2 – 6
Length: 45 min.

Birds are dinosaurs, and they are hard-working parents! Birds care for their babies by providing food and protection so that they can grow strong enough to leave the nest, but what about their ancient dinosaur relatives? Dinosaur parental care was a real mystery until the discovery of Maiasaura nesting grounds in northern Montana. Join MOR Paleontology Field Professional Lee Hall for a trip to Montana’s ancient dinosaur nursery, where you will learn about dinosaur nests, eggs, and babies, and why Maiasaura really was the “good mother lizard”!

Student Objectives

1. Name three dinosaurs that lay eggs, both modern and extinct.
2. Describe how paleontologists know that some dinosaurs took care of their young.
3. Compare and contrast dinosaur parental care vs. parental care of birds today.

Montana Science Standards

2^nd Grade
Life Science: Make observations of plants and animals to compare and contrast the diversity of life in different habitats.

3^rd Grade
Life Science: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

4^th Grade
Life Science: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

5^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, or atmosphere interact.

6^th – 8^th Grade
Life Science: Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

Earth & Space Science: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6 billion-year-old history.

10:10 a.m. MST Register Your Montana Classroom
12:10 p.m. MST Register Your Montana Classroom
Grades: 4 – 8
Length: 45 min.

Rocks, rock! While rocks aren’t living things (or even squishy, for that matter!), they still go through cycles – changing and morphing from one type to another over time. Learn about the three basic rock types with paleontologist Ashley Hall, and how sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks form and change through Earth’s dynamic forces.

Student Objectives

1. Identify the three basic rock types.
2. Explain that tectonic processes are continually occurring.
3. Understand the forces that contribute to the rock cycle.

Montana Science Standards 

4^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.

5^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

6^th – 8^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time scales and spatial scales.

Earth & Space Science: Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of past plate motion.

10:10 a.m. MDT Register Your Montana Classroom
12:10 p.m. MDT Register Your Montana Classroom
Grades: 2 – 6
Length: 45 min.

The Hell Creek Formation in Montana and surrounding areas contain the fossils of some of the last non-avian dinosaurs to walk the Earth. Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, and more all roamed the area about 66 million years ago. Join MOR Curator of Paleontology Dr. John Scannella to travel back to the end of the Cretaceous Period and meet the dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation!

Student Objectives

1. Recall three dinosaurs from the Hell Creek Formation.
2. Understand that fossils at MOR are excavated from Montana by our team of paleontologists.
3. Explain what the ecosystem was like in Montana, 66-68 million years ago.

Montana Science Standards 

2^nd Grade
Life Science: Make observations of plants and animals to compare and contrast the diversity of life in different habitats.

3^rd Grade
Life Science: Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

4^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.

5^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, or atmosphere interact.

6^th – 8^th Grade
Life Science: Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

Earth & Space Science: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6 billion-year-old history.

1:10 p.m. MDT Register Your Montana Classroom
Grades: 4 – 8
Length: 45 min.

What can we learn about dinosaurs by looking inside of their bones? Join Museum of the Rockies Paleohistology Lab Manager Ellen-Therese Lamm to explore her unique role in science and discover how researchers use microscopic information to piece together details about extinct animals.

Student Objectives

1. Explain the basic internal structure of a bone.
2. Describe the process of paleohistology.
3. Construct a scientific explanation of what we can describe about extinct animals based on the internal structure of fossilized bones.

Montana Science Standards 

4^th Grade
Life Science: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

6^th-8^th Grade
Life Science: Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern organisms and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

Life Science: Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

10:10 a.m. MDT Register Your Montana Classroom
Grades: 2 – 8
Length: 45 min.

Lots of kids dream of becoming a paleontologist but may not truly understand what the job entails! Learn all about the process of paleontology - from discovering fossils in the field to mounting dinosaurs for display - with Paleontology Lab and Field Specialist Scott Williams.

Student Objectives

1. Explain multiple steps in the process of paleontology.
2. Describe how paleontologists use a geologic map to find fossils.
3. Explain the role erosion plays in the process of paleontology.

Montana Science Standards

2^nd Grade
Earth & Space Science: Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.

3^rd Grade
Life Science: Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

4^th Grade
Earth and Space Science: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time. Make observations or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

5^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, or atmosphere interact.

6^th– 8^th Grade
Earth & Space Science: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6 billion-year-old history. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time scales and spatial scales. Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.