Choose a lesson, open the resources and decide how to use them with your class. Everything here is free, with no account needed.
Choose a lessonThe illustration is not a photograph of a place.
AI reconstruction — not a photograph · Shutterstock AI/Shutterstock.com · Shutterstock Standard License
Ages 9–11 · 5 or 20 minutes
A ready-to-use dinosaur water lesson for ages 9–11: five-minute discussion, twenty-minute investigation, projector prompts and printable answers.
A glass of water to look at, paper and a pencil. No drinking or experiment is required.
Ages 7–9 · 5 or 20 minutes
Free lesson for ages 7–9 on the sea-floor rock at the top of Mount Everest: timed plans, projector prompts, a printable worksheet and teacher answers.
Paper and a pencil. The diagram and the fossil card are on the projector; no rock samples are needed.
Ages 7–9 · 5 or 20 minutes
Free lesson for ages 7–9 on where Earth's water is, from the USGS table: timed plans, projector prompts, a printable worksheet and teacher answers.
Paper, a pencil and a coloured pencil. The bar diagram and the table are on the projector and the worksheet.
Real photograph · AI reconstruction — not a photograph: 300785485/Shutterstock.com · 228988681/Shutterstock.com · Shutterstock AI/Shutterstock.com · Tatiana Diuvbanova/Shutterstock.com · Shutterstock Standard (free image collection, API) License · Shutterstock Standard License
Use the five-minute discussion as an opening question or a recap. Choose the twenty-minute sequence when pairs have time to inspect the diagram, write an answer and revise it. The longer sequence includes the short discussion.
Read the teacher plan and answer key first. Open the projector prompts on the classroom screen and check that the diagram is readable from the back. Use the numbered links with Tab and Enter to move between prompts.
Open the lesson and use your browser’s Print command (Ctrl+P or Command+P). Its print layout separates the pupil worksheet from the teacher key. Check print preview and select only the pupil pages for the class; keep the answers for yourself. This is a browser-print resource, not a downloadable PDF.
For pupils who need reading support, read the prompts aloud and let partners rehearse an answer before writing. Keep the vocabulary list open; a labelled drawing can help a pupil explain their thinking.
For a greater challenge, ask pupils to explain why they changed their first answer and identify the source or assumption behind the revision. Use the answer key to discuss careful reasoning, not just matching words.
The age range and timings are teaching choices, not curriculum accreditation. Adjust the pace and vocabulary to your class. Paper and pencils are enough for every lesson; no drinking or experiment is required.
An interactive section of the dinosaur-water article, not a separate lesson. Change the glass size together and read the calculation’s assumptions.
The existing article’s printable one-sheet, separate from the lesson worksheet above. Open the activity section and use its Print this activity button.
The lesson links to its sources and explains its limits. For a guide to reading the site’s different kinds of evidence, see how we separate evidence from reconstruction. Keep those qualifications in the classroom discussion, too.