Students will launch the dinosaur investigation by handling fossils, models, and body-part clues; build shared background knowledge about what counts as living or nonliving and how fossils give evidence about the past; compare dinosaur features with modern animals; and develop a class set of focused, investigable dinosaur questions with simple predictions they can test in later phases.

Students will plan how to investigate dinosaur questions by learning simple ways scientists compare fossils, body parts, sizes, and habitats; choosing what evidence to collect; and revising a class-friendly investigation plan before beginning data collection.

Students will gather and document dinosaur evidence through hands-on observation, sorting, comparison, and museum-based field notes. They will use picture-based recording tools, check their data for completeness, give and receive peer feedback, and revise their evidence pages so their collected information is ready for analysis in the next phase.

Students will analyze the dinosaur evidence they collected by sorting observations into clear categories, creating simple picture-based data displays, noticing patterns and surprises, and using those patterns to explain what fossils, sizes, and body parts can tell us about dinosaurs. They will discuss findings with peers, revise their ideas using feedback, and prepare a preliminary findings page that connects evidence to the class questions and the future hallway dinosaur museum.

Students will use their fossil observations, sort charts, body-part comparisons, and model work to state what they now know about dinosaurs, explain how they know, name what they are still unsure about, revise their museum pieces with peer feedback, and present their conclusions to an authentic audience through the hallway dinosaur museum.