Dinosaur Extinction Project at Mona Vale

This collaborative investigation involves a small group of 4-5 year olds from the Preschool room at Mona Vale. The investigation into how the Dinosaurs became extinct stemmed from an initial discussion revolving around what children already know or have learnt. Children discussed what they knew about Dinosaurs, one aspect they were unsure about was how the Dinosaurs died. By drawing on this group’s curiosity, knowledge and questions we were able to collectively formulate a number of theories. The children hypothesized their extinction theories and they tested each theory to see if they were plausible.

The theories that were tested:
• Eruption theory
• Night time / cold theory
• Collision theory

This project was extended with the group of children researching and investigating the theories on the internet. This included researching other people’s theories and hypotheses. The children discovered that they had very similar theories. The in-depth investigation of the topic allowed children to observe, think, discuss, reflect and share thoughts with one another. Through utilising concrete materials to conduct the experiments, this allowed the children to observe and compare changes as well as gain a deeper understanding of their investigation.

A more comprehensive document has been developed detailing this learning experience including observations, actual commentary from the children, images and results of the children's investigations.

Dinosaur Extinction Project Mona Vale (1227 KB)