What it’s all about
In the middle of the classroom are an egg and three sets of large footprints - definitely not human. This is Dinosesaur Scene Investigation (DSI) and it is up to your pupils to find out who the egg belongs to, writes Victoria Grace Walden.
The Dinosesaurs - T-Spex, Dinomite and Triceytops - are this year’s Red Nose Day characters. The nose designs are caricatures of the Tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaur and triceratops, and a great excuse to study them.
Gather a number of eggs and spell out the names of the three mascots by writing one letter on each egg - but leave out the “x” of T-Spex and “m” of Dinomite. Hide the eggs around the school grounds and tell pupils to find them and use their detective skills to work out which Dinosesaur has been in the school. Include some red herring letters.
Pupils will discover that there is only one Dinosesaur whose name they can spell out: Triceytops. Ask them to identify what species it could be. Would the school be standing if a 12m (40ft) long Tyrannosaurus rex had come blundering in? Get them to compare their own height to the length of a Tyrannosaurus rex’s jaw - up to 1.2m (4ft). Dinomite, the stegosaur, with heavy plate armour, could only move at up to 5 mph (8kmh).
At up to 9m (30ft) long and 12 tonnes, with three horns on its face, Triceytops looked fearsome but was strictly vegetarian. Perhaps it was just looking for some juicy leaves to snack on.
What else?
Dinosesaur Scene Investigation is based on TES partner Learning through Landscapes’ outdoor dinosaur lesson, at bit.lyDinosaurInvestigation.
