Exhibition resource
Suitable for: Years F to 10
Learning area: Science
Topics: Dinosaurs, Climate change
Watch museum palaeontologists explain the secrets of our Triceratops.
The Triceratops TV videos introduce students to dinosaurs, fossils, palaeontology and the process of science as a human endeavour.
The videos follow the story of the fossil known as 'Horridus,' one of the most complete Triceratops fossils ever discovered.
Through watching these clips, students can learn how fossils are discovered, excavated, and analysed by palaeontologists, allowing students to see real scientists at work.
In this activity students will
- Watch a series of videos explaining how palaeontologists study dinosaurs.
- Learn how scientists classify dinosaurs.
- See why palaeo-artists draw dinosaurs the way they do.
- Discover how the Triceratops fossil was pieced back together for display at Melbourne Museum.
Suggested questions to engage students
- What challenges did scientists face in bringing the fossil to Melbourne Museum?
- How did scientists know where each bone went?
- What can we learn about the past by studying fossils?
What to do
Visit the following pages to access our suite of Triceratops videos:
Triceratops TV
This series gives students a behind the scenes look at the Triceratops fossil's origin, discovery, and its journey to Melbourne. Meet Museum Victoria's paleontologists and the palaeo-artists that bring the Triceratops to life.
Ask a palaeontologist
Aimed at younger students, in this series Museums Victoria's palaeontologists answer kids questions about the Triceratops.
Suggested activities
These videos have been designed as a resource to support your visit to Melbourne Museum. Some suggestions for engaging with this resource include:
KWL
Before watching a video from the Triceratops TV, ask students what they know and what they want to find out. Add new information to a KWL after they watch each video.
Dinosaur dictionary
Create a classroom vocabulary list. While watching the video, stop the video or have students write down any new words and write definitions or use each word in a sentence.
Roar reporting or prehistoric press-release
Have students write a news report about the discovery of the Triceratops fossil. Let them choose an angle for the article based on which videos they watch.
Interview with a...
have students work in pairs to write and perform a short interview script between a journalist and a palaeontologist, or an interviewer and a Triceratops; or a journalist and one of the experts in the videos.
Fossil fact file
write a Triceratops fact file sheet, using information from the videos and website. Students might like to use post it-notes to make lift the flaps to find out more.
Draw-a-saurus
Watch the video Triceratops: Drawing on the past. Then have students illustrate, colour, or build a model of a dinosaur based on the information they have learned.
Victorian Curriculum Links
Science: Foundation to Level 2
Biological science
- plants and animals have external features that perform different functions to enable their survival; in plants these features include roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruit, bulbs, trunks and branches while different features in animals enable them to move, breathe, eat and respond to their environment (VC2S2U03)
Science: Levels 3 to 4
Science as a human endeavour
- data from observations obtained through scientific inquiry can be used to develop explanations of natural phenomena (VC2S4H01)
- scientific knowledge, skills and data can be used by people to explain how they will meet a need or solve a problem (VC2S4H02)
Biological science
- living things have characteristics that distinguish them from non-living things and things that were once living, including fossils (VC2S4U01)
Science: Levels 5 and 6
Science as a human endeavour
- scientific knowledge changes over time, often resulting from collaboration or by building on the work of others, and leads to advances in science (VC2S6H01)
- scientific knowledge, skills and data can be used by individuals and communities to identify problems, consider responses and make decisions (VC2S6H02)
Biological science
- organisms have evolved over time, as seen in fossils and scientific records; the structural features and behaviours of living organisms enable them to thrive in their environments (VC2S6U02)
Science: Levels 7 and 8
Science as a human endeavour
- scientific knowledge, including models and theories, can change because of new evidence (VC2S8H01)
Earth and space sciences
- Earth is a dynamic planet as demonstrated by tectonic activity, including the formation of geological features at divergent, convergent and transform plate boundaries; the theory of plate tectonics is supported by scientific evidence (VC2S8U10)
Science: Levels 9 and10
Science as a human endeavour
- scientific knowledge is contestable and is validated and refined over time through expanding scientific methods, replication, publication, peer review and consensus (VC2S10H01)
Biological sciences
- the theory of evolution by natural selection includes the processes of variation, isolation and adaptation and is supported by evidence including the fossil record, biogeography and comparative embryology; the theory explains past and present biodiversity and demonstrates how all organisms have some degree of relatedness to each other (VC2S10U05)
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