Silver Burdett Ginn Dinosaur Unit

[Amado Narvaez <anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu>]

Grade school educators should check the 1996 Silver Burdett Ginn catalog 
for their Science Discovery Works Dinosaur Unit. I had just a glimpse of 
it today, but it looks VERY impressive. It includes a detailed teacher's 
guide that incorporates intercurricular ties as well as hands-on science 
activities. There is a very nice poster book with some of the most 
accurate illustrations I've seen in some time. There is a photograph 
of people looking at a Corythosaurus skeleton. The teacher's guide 
prompts the students to imagine what the living animal looked like. After 
the discussion, the teacher flips an acetate overlay over the photograph 
to show an artist's interpretation of what Corythosaurus looked like 
alive. The reconstruction looks like they found and mounted a real 
Corythosaurus. There is also a set of laminated cards (approximately 8 
1/2 by 11) with very nice original paintings as well as some of the 
better Dinamation creatures.

I like this much better than the dinosaur curriculum unit from 
Raintree/Steck-Vaughn (which had illustrations showing Stegosaurus and 
Triceratops as contemporaries).

Although the Silver Burdett Ginn Unit is designated Grade 2, it would be 
a worthwhile addition to any K-6 unit on dinosaurs. I didn't see the 
price list, so I'm not sure what the cost would be for the full kit, 
which includes other resources than what I mention here.

It looks like for once a textbook publisher did its homework in putting 
together a dinosaur unit, and even went to professionals to insure 
accuracy.

 ----- Amado Narvaez
       anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu