Making a Scale Drawing of Dinosaurs
Author:
Martin F. Goldsmith, Menomonee Falls High School, Menomonee Falls, WI53051, mgldsmth@exctpc.com
Grades:
4-8
Overview of Lesson:
This lesson gives the student and/or classes a chance to make a life-size drawing of a dinosaur skull. This activity can be modified to make a life-sized drawing of a dinosaur head or the complete body.
Suggested time:
These activities can take anywhere from two class periods to several days depending on which activity the teacher decides to follow and whether the actual drawing is done in class or as homework.
Background Information:
The Denver Earth Science Project (see references) has an activity in which the teacher can make a life size drawing of Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops.This activity uses the same principle of using a standard sheet of paper as a reference for the construction of the life sized skull of several dinosaur skulls.
Students’ Prior Knowledge:
It is not necessary for the student to have any background associated with dinosaurs but if they do, it could add some depth to the activities. Time may be needed for the teacher to explain the vocabulary words anatomy, hypothesis, proportional, and scale.
Materials:
- master drawing of the dinosaur head
- 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheets of paper (one for each student)
- number 2 pencil(one for each student)
- erasers
- Xerox copy of the dinosaur head for cutting up
- transparent tape
- one permanent marker
- optional scale model of dinosaur or dinosaur skull (see references for supplier)
Student Activity 1:
Making a life size drawing of a Allosaurus fragilis, Camarasaurus lentus, and/or Diplodocus longus.
The students should receive a rectangle with part of a drawing from their teacher. The student is to transfer the drawing on the small rectangle to a standard sized piece of typing paper. Do your drawing in pencil. Make the drawing as close to proportional as you can.
When finished with the drawing see your teacher to be assigned to a small group of four. When assigned to a group, try to piece the four drawings together like pieces of a puzzle. When finished have your teacher check your work. When given directions to proceed, tape the four pieces together putting the tape on the back of the paper so that it doesn’t go over the pencil drawing.
When the four pieces are joined together, attach the composite to the class drawing. Remember to add the tape to the backside of the drawing. Now answer the following questions.
Student Questions:
- What is the difference in the shape and number of teeth of each type of dinosaur?
- From your comparison, what do you think each animal ate?
- Compare the spacing and location of the teeth in the mouth. Are they the same? Can you give a reason why they are different?
- Could their teeth be used to defend themselves? Explain why you think so?
- How many holes does each dinosaur have in its skull? Remember you are looking at only one side of the animal.
- What do you think was the purpose of the spaces and holes?
- Where do you think the nose of each animal was located?
- Would a predator be more likely to have a big or a small mouth?
- What animal that lives today has a head that looks like Diplodocus?
Teacher notes:
The teacher should copy the dinosaur drawings that they wish to use. The teacher has a choice to number each rectangle on the drawing or leave them unnumbered.This will depend on the age level of the students and the complexity desired of the classroom teacher.Numbering the rectangles makes assembling the drawing easier.By leaving the rectangles unnumbered and handing out the rectangles randomly, the teacher encourages observation and problem solving skills. If you are going to leave the small rectangles unnumbered, it is important that you know which four students have adjacent rectangles so that you can later select them to work together and assemble the connecting pieces. The assembling of the pieces will be done during the next class period.
The teacher should cut the individual rectangles apart.If the teacher wishes, he/she could cut the rectangles in half, making two 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 pieces.By cutting the rectangles in half, this would increase the number of students that can take an active part in the drawing of the dinosaur.Give each student an 8 1/2 by 11 or an 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 piece of paper and one of the rectangles.Inform the students that they are to make an enlarged copy of the small rectangle on the large sheet of paper, making it as close a proportional copy as possible. Make sure the students do their drawings in pencil, as later, some changes may be needed in their drawings. The drawing may be done during class time or assigned as homework.
On the next day, the students can be divided into small groups of four so that they can match up their adjoining rectangles.The lines on the large sheet of paper may not line up perfectly, but they should come close to matching their adjoining sheets of paper. Have the students use their erasers and redraw the lines so that they match up with the lines on the adjoining sheets.
When the groups of four have theirs matched and corrected, have them tape the pieces together. Be sure to have them put the tape on the back side of the drawings so that when they join their four with the rest of the class, the tape will not cover up their penciled lines.
Follow the same procedure, as the small groups did, for assembling the sets of four pieces with all of the groups.
Have them make any corrections that are necessary on the completed life size drawing of the dinosaur.The teacher may want to go over the drawing with a permanent marker. This will make the life-sized drawing easily visible to the students in the back of the room.
The class now has a life-size replica of Camarasaurus lentus, Diplodocus longus, and/or Allosaurus fragilis. See the activity questions for class discussion.
Drawings:
Camarasaurus lentus
Click here for a higher quality (PDF) version of Camarasaurus (best for printing)
Allosaurus fragilis
Click here for a higher quality (PDF) version of Allosaurus (best for printing)
Diplodocus longus
Click here for a higher quality (PDF) version of Diplodocus (best for printing)
Student Activity 2:
Putting a life size drawing of Allosaurus fragilis, Camarasaurus lentus,and/or Diplodocus longus on a classroom or hallway wall.
Materials:
- master drawing of the dinosaur head
- overhead projector
- transparency
- Xerox copy of the dinosaur head for cutting up
- tube of acrylic black paint
- 1/4 inch wide paint brushes
- optional scale model of dinosaur or dinosaur skull (see references for suppler)
Xerox the drawing to be used and use it to make a transparency of the head that you wish to replicate.
Place the transparency on an overhead projector and project it on the wall. Move the projector back or forward as needed. The object is to get the projected rectangles to be the same size as a standard 8 1/2 by 11-inch sheets of paper. If the projection is not big enough, you will have to enlarge your original drawing and make a new transparency. When the projected rectangles on the wall matches the size of the standard sheet of paper, a life-sized projection of the dinosaur will appear on the wall. The students can copy the projection on the wall in pencil.After the whole head is copied, then the lines can be painted.
Teacher Notes:
When I put a drawing in the hallway I found a 50% enlargement worked. A little experimentation may be needed here. It is important to understand that there will be some distortion of the drawing along the bottom.I did not find this to be too big of a problem and with some slight adjustment of the overhead the difference is kept to a minimum.
I used acrylic black paint to finish the drawing. When it was finished our custodial staff covered the drawing with a protective clear coat sealer.Before it was sealed, small mistakes could be removed by scratching the drawing with your fingernail on a wet rag.Once the drawing is sealed, it is permanent.
Student Questions: Whether you do activity 1 or activity 2 the following questions can be used to stimulate class discussion. I recommend that the answers not be given to the students at this time. Accept all answers the students give as acceptable. The students’ preconceptions are being tested. Later the students will look back at their original answers and see if their ideas have changed. One way to look at this part of the assignment is to tell the students they are developing hypothesis on dinosaur anatomy and behavior.
Teacher notes to the questions:
- Allosaurus was a meat eater, Camarasaurus is thought to have eaten branches and leaves, and Diplodocus is thought to have eaten soft plants.
- Allosaurus could definitely put the bite on anything bothering it. Camarasaurus is thought to have used it’s size and possibly its teeth to defend itself, and one explanation for Diplodocus is that it’s teeth were too fragile for defense and it probably used its tail defend itself.
- Standard answers are eyes, ears, nose, nerve and blood vessel openings, cool the brain, make the head lighter.
- Allosaurus has its nostrils in the standard position at the front of the skull. Camarasaurus, and Diplodocus nostrils where found on the top of its head not in the normal position at the front of the skull. A possible reason is that the placement of the nose on the top of the skull away from the leading edge of the mouth was to protect the delicate tissue of the nose from sharp pine needles.
- A predator is more likely to have a large mouth with sharp teeth.
- A horse, deer, or antelope are all acceptable answers. These are animals with the teeth of a grazer. Notice that they lack of teeth in the back of the mouth.
After going through these questions, the teacher could collect the students’ answers for use by the students after they do some research on dinosaurs. The teacher might want to assign a library, Internet, or other research project for the class to do. This would give the students a chance to research their answers when they could confirm or change their answers to the above questions. Have the students document their source for their information.This could lead to a discussion about the reliability of their source. This is especially important when using the Internet as a reference.
The drawings for the two activities were made by me using the models by Ants, In Hand Museum. I made my drawings the same size as the models.This gave me a standard that I could put a grid representing an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper. To get a scale of 1:10, I divided the 8 1/2 by 11 by ten and used a ruler that was divided into tenths instead of sixteenths. I did the same thing with the Camarasaurus drawing, which came from a model with the scale of 1:3, only this time I divided by three.
Vocabulary:
anatomy, hypothesis, proportional, rectangle
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Math: The student uses measurement, comparing size, and making a proportional copy of a drawing.
Art: The student makes drawings of the skull and teeth of the dinosaurs.
Writing: The student will record observations, writing the answers to the student questions using complete sentences, using proper grammar and correct spelling of the words.
Extensions:
The students might want to make other life sized drawings of dinosaurs. "Paleontology and Dinosaurs" has some activities that are similar to making life-sized dinosaur drawings.It would also be a good interdisciplinary activity to work with the math and make their own drawings.
References:
Investigating Science with Dinosaurs, author Craig A. Munsart, Teacher Ideas Press a Division of Libraries Unlimited, Inc. Englewood, Colorado 1993 ISBN 1-5638-008-7
Paleontology and Dinosaurs, Science Module for Grades 7-10 Denver Earth Science Project, Office of Special Programs and Continuing Education, Colorado School of Mines Golden, Colorado 80401
Models can be ordered from the Wards Scientific catalog Carolina Supplies catalog, or from Dinosaurs: The Models TM, Ants, In Hand Museum TM, www.InHandMuseum.com.
Wisconsin State Science Standards
A.4.1
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scia4.html
When conducting science investigations, ask and answer questions that will help decide the general areas of science being addressed
A.4.2
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scia4.html
When faced with a science-related problem, decide what evidence, models, or explanations previously studied can be used to better understand* what is happening now
B.4.1
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scib4.html
Use encyclopedias, source books, texts, computers, teachers, parents, other adults, journals, popular press, and various other sources, to help answer science-related questions and plan investigations.
C 4.2
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scic4.html
Use the science content being learned to ask questions, plan investigations, make observations, make predictions, and offer explanations
C.4.7
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scic4.html
Support their conclusions with logical arguments
A.8.4
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scia8.html
Collect evidence to show that models developed as explanations for events were (and are) based on the evidence available to scientists at the time
C.8.4
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scic8.html
Use inferences to help decide possible results of their investigations, use observations to check their inferences
C.8.6
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scic8.html
State what they have learned from investigations, relating their inferences to scientific knowledge and to data they have collected
C.8.10
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/scic8.html
Discuss the importance of their results and implications of their work with peers, teachers, and other adults
