Joan Wiffen and the dinosaur fossil

Joan Wiffen and the dinosaur fossil

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about how to work like a scientist
 
Joan Wiffen is famous because she found dinosaur bone fossils in rocks in a New Zealand river. She looked for fossils for fun, but she had to think and work like a scientist before she found the dinosaur fossil.
 
What to do
  1. In your group read and talk about Joan Wiffen. What might she have done to work like a scientist?
  2. Your teacher will give your group 2 sets of cards.
  3. Match the cards to finish the sentences.
  4. On your task sheet put the sorted cards in the right place on the chart to match the ways scientists work.
  5. Talk about your answers in your group.
  6. Write your answers to the 2 questions under the chart.
a) Task sheet:
 
How scientists work How Joan did this
They start by learning about what people already know.  
They know what to look for.
 
  
They look carefully.
 
  
They think about what they see.
 
  
They check with other scientists.
 
  
 
b)
 
Do you think Joan Wiffen had a better chance than most people of finding a dinosaur fossil?   
Yes  /  No     (Circle one)  Why or why not?
 
Cards and words for matching (Activity A)
labels to cut out
Task administration: 

Equipment

Set of labels - these could be blown up for students to work in groups.

NOTE: Students should be familiar with the story of Joan Wiffen and her contribution to science before they complete this task. Refer to Other resources for source material.

It is suggested that students work in small groups to complete this task. Three is a good number.

  1. Prepare the cards before the activity. Each group will require one set of cards, a copy of the task sheet (enlarged), and a set of instructions.
  2. Read and discuss the introduction with the class (this could also be put on card or OHT). Focus the discussion on scientists’ work, and go over the five headings on the task sheet.
  3. Ask students to match the cards first. You may like to check their matches before they move on to the next part of the task.
  4. Ask students to then match the paired cards to the statements about how scientists work on the task sheet.
  5. In their group, have students discuss their ideas about the follow-up question. Once they have debated it among themselves they can write their response.
  6. Groups can present and discuss their responses to the class.
Copyright: 

Picture Source: www.tki.org.nz (May 2005)
Level:
2
Curriculum info: 
Science, Understanding about science, Planet Earth
Keywords: 
interacting systems, fossils, dinosaurs, scientists, group assessment, matching
Description of task: 
Task: Students match parts of statements about how Joan Wiffen worked like a scientist, and identify what skills or experiences helped her find fossils. Assessment focus: interpreting information about how scientists work.
Curriculum Links: 
Science capabilities
The capabilities focus is brought about by the conversations you have and the questions you ask.
 
Capability: Gather and interpret data
This resource provides opportunities to discuss how scientists use careful observation when gathering data.
Science capabilities: 
Gather and interpret data
Making Better Sense: 
Dinosaurs/Fossils
Answers/responses: 
a) They start by learning about what people already know. One way Joan Wiffen learnt about dinosaurs was from books.
  They know what to look for. She knew what sorts of rocks might have fossils in them.
  They look carefully. She saw that the fossil was different from the other fossils she had found
  They think about what they see. She thought it might be a dinosaur fossil.
  They check with other scientists. When she wasn't sure what she had found she asked a scientist.
b)
Yes
Any of:
  • She knew a lot about fossils.
  • She knew quite a lot about dinosaurs.
  • She knew what to look for.
  • She knew what sorts of places to look.
  • She knew the sort of rocks that were likely to contain fossils.
  • She spent many years searching.
  • She had already found other fossils.
  • She had read lots of books about fossils.
  • Any other sensible answer.
Diagnostic and formative information: 

Nature of science NOS Theme:

Scientific progress comes from logical and systematic work, and also through creative insights. At Level 2, in this context the important idea is that Joan Wiffen didn't just happen to find a dinosaur fossil. It took specialised knowledge and years of work to achieve this.

Children's misconceptions

A common belief is that all big monsters from the prehistoric past are dinosaurs. The story of Joan Wiffen's discovery addresses this misconception. She had previously found large marine fossils - these giant reptiles were not dinosaurs. Dinosaurs did not fly or swim, and they lived on land. Features of their pelvic bones help distinguish them from other reptiles.

A suggested sequence for carrying out this task

This assessment task requires students to be familiar with the story of Joan Wiffen and her contribution to science. The following sequence was used when trialling this resource with a small group of children at a low decile school with a very diverse student body.

  1. General introductory discussion about what the students already knew about dinosaurs.During this discussion students identified that dinosaurs were land creatures, that they had become extinct before people were on the earth, that they came in various sizes and that we know about dinosaurs from bones that have been found. Students drew on their prior knowledge, including that provided by a school trip to Te Papa last year. As a group they were unsure as to whether or not there had ever been dinosaurs in New Zealand, although one dominant group member was sure there had been.
  2. Reading the article. (Refer to Teacher resource - see below.)The group listened to the article about Joan Wiffen. The reading was broken up with discussion and props as shown.
  3. In groups of three, the children completed the assessment task.
  4. When both groups were finished they shared their answers.This part of the session and the discussion that ensued were very useful in gaining extra information about the students’ ideas about how scientists worked. It gave students an opportunity to explain their thinking that was not obvious from their group written response. One group responded that Joan Wiffen would have the same chance of finding a dinosaur fossil as anyone else. This was the opinion of one dominant student in the group who managed to convince the others that someone without any prior knowledge might also just stumble on a fossil and even with knowledge there was no guarantee that you would actually find a fossil. During the discussion, when we discussed probability in a range of familiar contexts, he revised his opinion, accepting that chances of finding a fossil would be increased if you knew where to look.
  5. In conclusion, the question "What do you know about how scientists work?" was posed.This gave students an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding further. One very quiet group member at this stage said that scientists "try to add new stuff on". He explained how there would be no point investigating things that were already known.
Teacher resource

What the teacher said

What the teacher did

Scientists used to think that dinosaurs probably never lived in New Zealand. They know that long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the world, New Zealand was part of a big "super continent".

Some scientists thought that, when New Zealand split away, dinosaurs did not live in that part. They also thought that New Zealand was too small for big animals like dinosaurs to survive. Even if there were dinosaurs, they would be very little.

Joan Wiffen was not a scientist, but she was interested in fossils, and had learnt a lot about them.

She thought maybe scientists were wrong, and that dinosaurs did once live here. She had already found fossils of sea animals that were nearly as old as dinosaurs, and she knew that there were fossils of trees that grew at the time of dinosaurs. So she went looking.

Finding dinosaur fossils is not easy. Joan had to know about a lot of things so she knew where to look and what to look for.

She started by collecting and learning about rocks. She learnt what sort of rocks fossils might be found in.

She then got interested in fossils and travelled around New Zealand collecting things like fossilised shells.

She also read a lot of books - about fossils, about dinosaurs, and about how to get fossils out of rocks.

One day she found an old map that gave her some clues about where to search for fossil bones. After some months she found the place - and, after lots of hard work, some fossils of some huge sea animals.

Then, in 1975, Joan's husband broke open a rock and inside was a fossil that looked like a piece of backbone. Joan knew it looked different from the other fossils she had found. She looked in her books but could not work out what it was.

Four years later, Joan went on holiday in Australia. At the Queensland Museum she noticed some bones that looked like hers. The scientist there told her that they were dinosaur bones.

When she got home she took photographs of her fossil and sent them to the scientist, who was able to tell her that her fossil was also a dinosaur bone.

Since then, Joan has found more dinosaur bones. Now, because she knew what to look for, scientists know that there were dinosaurs in New Zealand after all.

Compared a modern globe with a picture of Gondwana land.

 

Showed some rocks with fossilised shells.

 

Allowed time for handling and discussion about how fossils are formed.

 

 

Looked at pictures of prehistoric sea animals.

 

Discussion led on to reasons for finding fossils of sea animals a long way inland.

Looked at pictures of the vertebrae Joan found and other vertebrae.

 

Identified differences between them.

For background information google Joan Wiffen. Two possible useful sites are:

Science Learning Hub Joan Wiffen

Te Papa collections Joan Wiffen, a fossil expert

Cox, G. and Wiffen, J. (2002). Dinosaur New Zealand. Auckland: HarperCollins.This book includes a chapter Dinosaur hunting in New Zealand, names New Zealand museums that display relevant material, and suggests further titles. The illustrations are excellent.

The science context for this resource is fossils.To explore the science, the picture pack Fossils that supports the BSC book 41, Fossils, contains some useful pictures, especially cards 1, 2, 3, 8, 12, and 15.