Molds and Casts: 5th

I always liked making molds and casts using the Nasco Rubber molds of animal footprints. The molds are highly detailed and show the animal's unique characteristics.
Things to teach with this are almost endless:
molds and casts of fossils
fossil formation
what fossils teach us
animal tracks
animal adaptations (foot)
chemical reaction (plaster)

If I can connect art and science that is a plus, too. So when we paint the casts on day 2, we can be artistic.

Casts are dry in about two hours, so I was able to pop out the first class before the second class came. This gave everyone a good choice of molds to choose from.

 

We used eye loupes to examine my small fossil collection and made inferences about where they may have been found.







Day 2: Paint, Let Dry, and Take Home