3 Week 3: All About the Stegosaurus

A bright green Stegosaurus breaking through a yellow background.

Let Me Introduce: Stegosaurus!

First, get in your Weekly Quiz!

Weekly Quiz 3a

 

Who doesn’t love the Stegosaurus? So many unanswered questions. Was it unintelligent given its tiny brain cavity? What’s with the plates? Did they live together or apart? Most importantly, how epic were their battles with T. rex?

Spike, a baby Stegosaurus from the movie The Land Before Time, munching away on long grasses.

This week we will answer, or at least try to figure out, answers to all these burning questions about one of the most iconic dinosaurs ever. Plus everyone loves Spike in The Land Before Time. Here are the Notes with Gaps and the PowerPoint for the week.

This week is all about Stegosaurus! Let’s dive into the details.

 

Now let’s get into the basics of the features Stegosaurus has!

 

[INSERT lecture video, plates?]

Before you continue, print out the Stegosaur Plates exercise, cut out the plates and spikes, and arrange them in the top view of the Stegosaurus.

How will you arrange the plates? Are they in 2 parallel lines or staggered? Remember, you have to make them all fit! This model is to scale! Once you have completed putting your plates on (with glue, sticky tac, or tape) take a picture and upload it to the course dashboard.

 

 

For this assignment:

  1.  Print out the Stegosaur Plates exercise. This is also available in your Notes with Gaps.
     
A slide pulled from the leture explaining the Stegosaurus Plate Arrangement Activity. Specifics are included in the image caption.
The large round shape below the plates is a top view of the Stegosaurus. Imagine you were in a (non-flowering) tree looking down as it walked by on the ground below you. How would the plates and spikes be arranged? Hint: Try using the sticky tack wrapped around the bottom of the plates to stick them perpendicular to the cut out shape of the dinosaur. The line down the middle of the dinosaur outline is about where its backbone should be.

 

  • Cut out the plates and spike and arrange them in the top view of the Stegosaurus.
    • How will you arrange the plates?
    • Are they in 2 parallel lines or staggered? Remember you have to make them all fit! This model is to scale!
  • Once you have completed putting your plates on (with glue, sticky tac, or tape) take a picture and upload it to the course dashboard.

 

What’s with the Plates?

There are 4 main proposed uses of the plates. in this video I will review those uses. Which proposal grabs your attention the most? You can use this video to help you generate your “stegosaurs experiment” for the weekly assignment.

 

 

What Do YOU Think? Design an EXPERIMENT!

[INSERT Stegosaurus_StegoAssignment.mp4]

So, what you will do this week for the hands-on activity you will be designing a scientific experiment to assess the uses of the Stegosaurs’ plates! You have a couple options, the experiment you design could be field-based (e.g., go into the field and look for a certain fossil structure) or lab-based (where you “build” and design something in the lab to test) experimentation. Check out this video for more info:

To submit your experiment you can either submit a video of you explaining your experiment or submit a written report. To obtain full credit your submission should include:

Part 1: EVERYONE

  1. Identification of which “proposed uses of the plates” idea you are testing.
  2. A stated hypothesis your experiment will test (see the Week 1 Scientific Hypothesis video to remind yourself of how to construct this).
  3. What you expect the results of the experiment to be.

Part 2A: Field Paleontologist- If you do the field-based experiment be sure to include:

  1. What you are going to look for in the fossil record
  2. The likelihood that you will be able to find it
  3. Potential dig site location

Part 2B: Lab Paleontologist- If you do the lab-based experiment be sure to include:

  1. What will you build to test your hypothesis?
  2.  What variables or parameters that you will you be measuring?
  3. Likely outcomes of your experiment.
  4. How you would modify it based on the results?

Submit your experimental designs to your course dashboard.

Weekly Wrap-Up!

 


Look Here!

 

Complete::

  1. Weekly Quiz 3a
  2. Stegosaurus Plate Arrangement
  3. Stegosaurus Experimental Designs
  4. Weekly Quiz 3b

Links

  • Previous Week – [Week 2 Dinosaur Metabolism]
  • Next Week – [Week 4 Dino Parents]

License

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The Story of Dinosaurs Copyright © 2023 by Ashley Burkett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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