A Stack of Old Bones: A Biostratigraphy Lesson Plan Based on Research-determined Best Practices

Abstract

Informal science education is an important facet of overall science education and has a large body of research. By examining the research, a set of effective practices can be developed to aid in the actual construction of an informal science lesson plan. This thesis assembles such a list of practices and seeks to create a lesson plan based on them. These practices will be explained, as will their application in the lesson plan. The lesson plan was tested in a 4th grade classroom to verify the overall efficacy of the lesson plan. A final version of the lesson plan was designed in response to the successes and failures of the lesson plan during testing.