Activity 2 - Making fossils

Learning intentions

We are learning to:

  • Investigate how fossils are created

  • Record our ideas about how fossils show what older lanscapes may have been like.

Activity

Materials

  • Some flat shells or leaves (with plenty of texture)

  • Plaster of Paris

  • Water

  • Mixing cup

  • Spoon

  • Plastic container for making the fossil

  • Petroleum jelly

Method

  1. Have a digital camera ready to record what you did

  2. Put a small amount of petroleum jelly onto a cloth and wipe the sides of the clear plastic container

  3. In the mixing container, mix about two heaped teaspoons of plaster, with about 2 to 3 teaspoons of water. You can add a small amount of sand (so that it looks like rock). Mix well.

  4. Place the plaster into the clear container.

  5. Wait abou ten minutes until the plaster is just setting.

  6. Plave the flat shell or leaf into the surface of the setting plaster. It should be well stuck, but NOT buried under the surface.

  7. When a bit more dry, rub some petroleum jelly onto the surface of the plaster, and the shell or leaf.

  8. Mix some more plaster.

  9. Pour it on top of the set plaster

  10. Leave to dry overnight.

  11. In the morning tap the plaster out of the container.

  12. Carefully separate the two layers of plaster.

  13. You have just made your first fossil.

  14. Record what you did, including photos onto a Word doc, or Powerpoint.

Extra

At the bottom of this page is an area for comments. Record your ideas about in what sort of landscape that these may have lived.