| My long-time enjoyment of earth science, | | | | |
| especially when it included fossil | | | | Instantly the air was filled comments: Its |
| activities, had me doing earth science | | | | round! Mine is like a cylinder. Mines got |
| activities for kids from the time my own | | | | ridges. |
| children were little ones. So when my middle | | | | |
| school asked me to pick something to teach | | | | Then speculation and conjecture: I think this |
| for six weeks that I just enjoyed, this was | | | | is that animal that looks like a clam. I |
| the first thing that came to mind. It was set | | | | think this could be a tooth. I know; its a |
| up to be more like a club than a class, so | | | | snail! |
| while there were definitely learning goals, | | | | |
| the most important goal was to have fun and | | | | I had the students pass their bags to the |
| enjoy ourselves. I knew I should include | | | | next student and compare observations and |
| fossil activities in my lesson plans. There | | | | guesses. Eventually they were begging me to |
| had to be a lot of hands-on kids' activities | | | | open the bags. |
| with an emphasis on fun. | | | | |
| | | | But before we did, I asked them to tell me |
| When I got my class list, I saw immediately | | | | what they knew about ancient sea life. There |
| that I would need to do some revisions in my | | | | were lots of pictures in their minds; some |
| plans: I had a small class, but it included | | | | were accurate. Then I asked them to imagine |
| several students with learning disabilities | | | | which of those species might have left fossil |
| and behavioral problems. These were not going | | | | remains. We talked about how fossils are |
| to be internally motivated kids. I knew that | | | | formed. |
| my most important class would be the first | | | | |
| one. I needed an earth science activity that | | | | Finally, as a last observation, I asked the |
| would get the students hooked on the subject | | | | students to guess at the animal contained in |
| right away. | | | | their bag, by either name or species. When |
| | | | fossil was finally revealed more questions, |
| I had seen an activity with younger students | | | | especially about identification and behavior, |
| called the magic bag. It capitalized on the | | | | waited to be answered. |
| unknown and their natural curiosity. But | | | | |
| these were middle school students-and some | | | | If this had been a research class, there |
| tough ones at that! I knew Id have to have a | | | | would have been more than enough curiosity to |
| pretty solid subject area-something that | | | | compel these students on to further study. In |
| could intrigue and impress. | | | | this class, our next activity was to do a |
| | | | real fossil dig, with real fossils. The magic |
| I placed a small fossil in enough velvet bags | | | | bag earth science activity had the students |
| for each student to have his/her own. Before | | | | thinking, talking and ready for more fossil |
| handing them to the students, I asked them to | | | | activities. |
| explore the contents of the bag without | | | | |
| opening it. Since the students knew the topic | | | | As kids activities go, The Magic Bag is at |
| was fossils, I didnt give any clues as to the | | | | the top of the list for ease of use and |
| contents of the bags. | | | | enthusiastic student involvement. |